Alternamorphs 2: A Change In The Game
by typhoonboom08
Summary: Sequel to Alternamorphs 1: Return Of The Hyena. War is an ever-changing game. Every event changes the outlook of the board. Something that the Animorphs are determined to work in their favor. New tactics are coming into play and new allies, both intentional and unexpected alike, are rising to join the fight. The real war has just begun, and the Animorphs don't intend to lose.
1. The Exposure Part 1: Ben

**AN:** Hey everyone, Alternamorphs 2 is finally up. I'd just like to warn you now that in this one, while Warren is the main character, it does follow other people's stories as well. For example, The Exposure has what Warren and the team's doing, but it also focuses almost as much on the completely different situation Ben has fallen into.

Also, this is called Exposure instead of Exposed because while you see the parts Warren sees and alters, it is not the book. Some things may seem to suddenly spring up from the book as Warren notices them. If you haven't read The Exposed, I recommend at least finding out what Rachel's personal issues were. Well, that's about it. Enjoy.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Animorphs. Plain, simple and obvious fact. This is on fanfiction, duh!

* * *

**The Exposure Part 1**

**Ben**

My name is Ben.

The air around me wreaked of urine and garbage. I was already contemplating burning my clothes when I got home and longing for a long, hot shower with a _lot_ of soap. The stench was seeping into every inch of my skin, soaking into every speck of fabric of my clothes. I desperately hoped that it was just filthy water that was soaking into the denim covering my lower right leg. I wanted to gag and hurl, run as fast as my legs would take me before my inevitable, uncoordinated meeting with the pavement. But I had to sit still, breathe as softly as I could. Never make a sound. If I did, they would catch me.

The back alley was right out of one of those cliché movies, if you hadn't figured that out yet. The kind that was covered in garbage, often sheltering the homeless from the cold winds at night. And again, just like in the movies, this one too was being used for less than law abiding business. In this case, abduction.

"I don't even know why I'm going along with this." If I had been still before, I was frozen in time now. Even my breathing stopped as the gruff, irritated voiced echoed off the walls. This was exactly what I was waiting for, confused about and terrified of. The abductors were making their move. "You aren't even worth my time. You're nothing but an insignificant speck, a mere one in a million. Why should I even bother dealing with someone so powerless?"

"Leaks in information have to be dealt with quickly, no matter what the source. How do you expect us to progress if such issues are not nipped in the bud?" Another, much more familiar voice stated coldly as two large figures turned a corner. Both of their faces wore expressions cold cruelty as they swept halfway through to the alley's sealed end. My entire body erupted in a cold sweat as their eyes scanned over the entire area with an intensity comparable to the world's greatest detectives or art evaluators. I had to bite my lip as they each turned to look in my direction, desperately trying to hold back the pure terror running wild through me, demanding that I let my body shake all over before running out of there at top speed and letting loose the most embarrassing screams of my life. If they spotted me...well, I had no clue just how disastrous that could be.

Fortunately, their eyes passed over my makeshift fort of random garbage not a minute later, letting me calm down, if only slightly. This was far from over and I was confident that I was going to hate what I'd see. But still, this was the only way to get the answers I needed. I knew going into this what I was likely to find. Now I had to face it.

"And what is this leak you claim to have tracked down Iniss 226?" The first man scowled, turning his eyes heatedly on the middle aged man beside him. A man I was shocked to recognise as my former Vice Principle Chapman. "And how would you, barely able to leave the house, have noticed this leak when the rest of us did not?"

"Plenty of free time to notice minor details for a start." Chapman retorted before a cocky smirk crossed his face. "And besides, my house has obviously been watched by the enemy. After all, both sides have already acquired Chapman's face."

The first man's breath hitched and his eyes widened in realisation and fury as Chapman's smirk grew larger. Barking out a war cry, the man went for what looked like a torch sticking out of his pocket only for Chapman to expertly kick it right out of his grasp and send it flying away, quickly getting lost in the piles of discarded metal and old newspapers. Then, before the man could even react, a blond boy no older than myself leapt out of his own hiding place, behind a broken door to what looked like it could have been intended as a supply closet for gardening equipment long ago, and grabbed harshly at the side of the guy's neck.

The method was quick and quiet. Within two seconds of contact, all signs of struggle disappeared from the man, his eyes dulling like he was in a trance. And not a second after that started, the boy's hand slid a little further down the neck and clenched. The man immediately dropped toward the ground like a sack of potatoes, only being halted as Chapman's arms scooped him up.

"Ok, we've got about half an hour with him, much less time before his workmates notice he's missing." Chapman stated as the boy moved to help carry their captive.

"Plenty of time." The boy smirked, completely unphased as they stopped. Letting go of the man, he kicked an old, ragged and stained rug aside to reveal an open manhole. "Dad's got the car ready and if he wakes up before we get to the shack, knocking him out again is no challenge. You worry too much Warren."

"Because you don't worry nearly enough." 'Chapman' retorted, scowling as his arm began to shake. "Dammit, couldn't Chapman play with some weights or something once in a while? Seriously, I'm stronger than him and when it comes to weight lifting, I'm nothing special!"

"Well, what do you expect him to do when he had all those lower class Yeerks to do his work for him? I'd be surprised if the arrogant twit picked up anything more than a pen." The boy quipped as he lowered himself down the hole. Finally getting a good look at his face, I recognised him as David. He had been a new kid at school, one with a real bad attitude, but he disappeared not long after. His face had been all over the news, along with his parents', claiming that they were dangerous and that anyone with information should call the police immediately, but what they had done had never been released. Apparently it was confidential or some crap. "Just demorph. I'm not really fond of that face anyway."

"Of course not. He was an authority figure." 'Chapman' smirked back as David disappeared down the hole completely. A disgusted cry and the urge to puke both struck me hard as 'Chapman' did as David suggested while simultaneously lowering the unconscious man down to his partner. His skin looked like he had worms running under it as his body started shrinking, reshaping his appearance. The cracking and grinding of what had to be bones changing made it all way to my hiding place, making me bite down even harder on my lip, making it bleed. I didn't care though, I had to keep my mouth shut. If it opened, I'd be busted.

By the time the man had been lowered completely into the sewer below, all the details of Chapman were already gone. There were still a few lingering things, like his greying hair that was slowly shortening and turning dark brown and the adult sized hands, but mostly, he had turned into the form of a person that I was usually quite comfortable around. My best friend, Warren. My first friend in far too many years. The guy who helped me befriend Cassie, get into horseback riding. And the guy I once caught with feathers growing out of his arms. Feathers that I quickly determined were the ones of a golden eagle. A bird big enough to be one of the flyers I'd seen flying around Warren's neighbourhood not ten minutes later.

"Careful, you hit his head on the wall!" Warren cried, a little panic flaring as he stared down the hole, his body tensing a little.

"Sorry! He's a bit heavy you know!" David's voice shot back as Warren finished transforming back into himself and tugging the manhole cover as he started lowering himself down.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll help you in sec. Just make sure you don't hurt him." Warren retorted with a sigh. "The slim ball won't let go, so this will be painful enough for the poor guy without a head injury being involved. We want him free and functional when this is all over."

"I know, I..." I never caught the rest of it, for it was at that moment that Warren placed the cover over the hole, the physical barrier blocking everything out.

Letting out the breath that I had held for far too long, I let my body relax. I didn't leave my hiding place though. As much as I wanted to get out of there, there was still a slight possibility that the boys or one of their captors' friends would show up in the next few minutes and if they did, I didn't want to be seen there. Though I would have liked to overhear their conversations. I definitely hadn't gotten enough information yet.

'_Still, I got a bit.'_ I reminded myself, mulling over all that I'd heard and seen. Now I knew that Warren could turn into other people, not just animals. '_Well, other animals.'_ My mind stated, making me grin in a little amusement. That part of my brain sounded a lot like Warren. Well, he was the one to always remind me that humans are merely animals too, despite how most like to think that we're something beyond them. But that's off...oh wait, that could be why. Humans are animals, so turning into one would be no different for however he does it.

I also got confirmation that some sort of fight was going on. The way their captive talked, it was like he was part of a mafia or something and searching for the 'snoop'. And Chapman had been involved with that guy, a big shot too before his arrest, if what I heard was anything to go by.

Then there was the fact that even though they captured him for what sounded like a hostage situation, Warren wanted this guy, his enemy for a lack of a better word, to be unharmed. What's more, Warren was actually _sympathetic_ to the guy and seemed to be...saving him. Free and functional. That didn't make any sense!

But then, neither did Warren working with the kid who actually made it onto the Feds' most wanted list for reasons unknown. I'd already known before today, I'd been spying for a while now, getting what I could, though I still couldn't make any sense of it. From the little I'd seen and heard, this guy was the tenth person that they'd captured like this. All of them were taken to a shack somewhere in the woods before taken somewhere else when whatever was going on was resolved. They'd mentioned freeing them and them crying for their families, neither boy looking anything but sad at that.

There was also the fact that David had the same power Warren had. I'd found out about this place by watching two golden eagles come here. A normal person would have brushed it off, considering the gap between them, but knowing that Warren had slipped off and a golden eagle had appeared nearby, it was pretty obvious to me.

Basically all that I gathered only told me that they could turn into animals, what they were doing wasn't approved by law, or whoever was influencing the law and they were strangely trying to beat and save one group of people at the same time.

'_This puzzle is still missing its key piece.'_ I shook my head glaring at the garbage. Being a geek and actually seeing my best friend shapeshifting meant that the number of possibilities for that piece were infinite, from me just being insane to something out of Star Trek, though I was ruling out the insane part. I simply refused that I would let myself crack like that, especially when my life was finally looking up. It didn't help with this situation any though, I eradicated the easiest answer. I needed more to go on, like something about the guys Warren and David were abducting, but what? What could push Warren to kidnap these people? I had to find out the answer to that, it was the only way to find out what Warren had gotten himself into.

And until I did that, I had no way of knowing how to handle the situation. Whether to help Warren, find a way to save him or ignore it completely. I pushed down the fourth option. There was no way that I was going to turn him in.

'_He has kidnapped TEN people!'_

'_And if this one and everything I've overheard's anything to go by, that might be a really good thing!'_ I didn't care what my civic duty demanded. Warren's my friend and I only cared about helping him. What that entitled was yet to be confirmed, but going to the cops was not it.

'_Still, I can't determine what it entitles if I can't find out anything about who he's capturing.'_ I scowled, coming right back to the point of all this. If only there was _something_ to give him just the _slightest_...

"The torch!" A smile crossing my face, I finally pulled myself out of the garbage and ran over to the pile of metal. Warren and David hadn't even given it a thought, so it was still there and I had a feeling that it was important. After all, Warren was quite keen to get it out of the guy's hand before he could use it.

Crouching down beside it, I quickly, but carefully dug my hand through the poles and scrap metal, careful not to cut myself on the rusted, sharp edges that promised infections. It took a few minutes of careful searching, but I found it, hidden at the very edge under a newspaper from two months ago. Carefully picking it up, my smile turned into a frown as I ran my fingers over it. It was made of a black metal that I couldn't identify. It looked naturally black, not painted, and it felt different. Too smooth for something that was obviously designed to be easy to grip. And it definitely wasn't a normal torch.

The lens at the front was missing for a start and it looked closer to a gun configuration on the inside. There was definitely no light bulb in it, that was for sure and on the top, there was both a button and a rotating knob hidden under a hinged on piece of metal that came up to reveal itself as a targeting tool, like the eyepiece on a gun. The button was round and red, standing out on the black despite its small size. The knob on the other hand, was as black as the rest of the device. Next to it was a small screen that showed the number five.

"Must have a power setting feature." I mused, staring down at it contemplatively. This thing looked a little too futuristic for my liking, a worrying thought, but at the same time it had peaked my abundant curiosity. As wary as I was of it, I wanted to know what it did.

"It might be dangerous." I muttered to myself, frowning hard. However, my fingers were already fiddling with the knob, lowering the number to one. Even if it was dangerous, it was at the lowest setting. Something so small at such a low setting couldn't do that much, right?

Deciding just to go for it, I stood up and aimed it at an old pizza box. Taking a deep breath, I set myself for any kick this thing might have and hit the button.

TSEEW!

BOOOOM!

"AH!" The amount of strangely deadly looking light that came from it nearly blinded me, causing me to jump and changing the target to a wall. One that exploded upon impact, leaving me staring up in horror at an enormous hole and who knew how much damage done to the stuff inside.

There were no alarms going off, but that was only because I managed to blow up or rip out a lot of the wiring in the place. Still, the boom would have attracted everyone within a mile radius. I had to get out there!

My panic setting in, I only wasted a few seconds checking to make sure that no one was inside at the time before running as fast as I could away from that place. Police sirens could already be heard in the distance and they had to be pretty close, considering that I could hear them over countless people's screaming.

I honestly don't know how I got away. I don't even remember much more than a few blurs after about five seconds of running. I knew that there were people running around all over the place, you'd think that one of them would have noticed the freaked kid running from place where people would assume the bomb went off. Maybe they thought I was just running away from the danger, like they were, or maybe I disappeared too fast, I don't know. I don't remember running through town. The first time I ran for more than half a minute without falling down and I don't even remember it. By the time my awareness picked up again, I found myself actually running through the forest.

My lungs felt like they were on fire as I pulled myself to a sudden halt, my legs giving out and letting me drop back onto the ground as I desperately gasped for breath. The sirens were far off now, they were barely a whisper. Good. That meant that I wasn't followed.

Still, the event was running like a runaway train through my head. I just kept seeing it over and over again. The ground in front of me torn up as my arms tore the beam from its original target. The hole the size of a small truck, the burned, shattered and half incinerated furniture, the sparking wires. What if Warren had still been below in the sewers and I hadn't jerked at the light? What if people had been in that room I'd just given a new exit? I could have killed people! What had I been thinking, playing with what my mind had already determined to be a weapon? A low setting on anything declared a weapon was still extremely dangerous! And that was supposed to be a low setting? Just how much power had that guy intended to throw at Warren with a level five setting?

And why was the weapon still in my death grip?

Throughout the whole run, the crash, all of it, I never noticed that I still had the cause of the destruction. The latch was back down thankfully, covering the button and preventing another blast, but it still caused my heart to shift into turbo gear all over again.

'_It's probably best that I didn't drop it.'_ I decided after a few seconds, though my hand was quick to snap open and let it go. _'It's got my finger prints on it now. And besides, it's better off with me than on the ground where the next idiot can use it like a play thing.'_ The urge to puke came up again at that thought and this time it had nothing to do with the fact that I still stank. The idea of dropping it for someone else to do what I did...imagine if a child got it? They could have obliterated their entire family thinking it was a Star Wars or Power Rangers toy or something! No, I had to keep it. At least until I could figure out how to safely destroy it.

One thing's for sure though, I have an idea of what Warren's gotten himself into now. No one carrying concealed weapons like these is safe to have walking the streets. He was the good guy in this, between the laser and the person I knew and saw both with just me and at the end of that abduction, I couldn't be more confident about that. But he was definitely in way over his head. And I still had no clue how to react to this.

I still needed more information and I really needed it soon.


	2. The Exposure Part 2: Warren

**AN:** Hey everyone and welcome to chapter 2. Thanks for the reviews guys, really appreciate them. Well, enjoy.

* * *

**The Exposure Part 2**

**Warren**

My name is Warren.

Sitting in the back of a seemingly normal, everyday car registered to a Mr John Smith with an unconscious, easy capture, I was feeling pretty annoyed with myself. It started the moment the boom went off. It wasn't hard to notice, we were still nearby in the sewers when it struck, and it was easy to hear. The second I heard it, realisation had hit me hard. We'd left the stupid Dracon Beam behind. What a amateurish mistake!

There was no doubt that the blast had come from the alley we used. An alley frequently used by the homeless or the rare armed thief. Their presence was one of the reasons we'd picked that alley in the first place. It was easy to hide our attacker in and the rep it had kept most people away, making it easy to abduct Controllers without being noticed. However, now that the Dracon Beam had been found and used there...

"We're going to need a new location now too." I grunted, getting a nod and an affirmative hum from David's dad as he drove and an exasperated sigh from his son.

"Warren, stop stewing over it. What's done is done." He stated, his impatience flaring. I'd been going on about our stupidity for a while now. "One accident in ten captures isn't too bad and we were going to have to change sites soon anyway before the Yeerks caught on. Besides, we were on a time limit, you were worrying about not giving the guy brain damage and it's not like we've ever had to worry about finding a Dracon Beam before!" That was true, this guy was better than our previous targets. None of them were able to even reach their Dracon Beam before we took them down. Still, time limits and adrenaline pumping or not, we should have thought to look for that thing. It was a weapon for crying out loud, dangerous in the wrong hands and desperately needed to up our arsenal. My partners in this little capture had yet to succeed in figuring out how to successfully...accommodate the equipment they wanted. That we needed, despite the reservations some of the others had about using it, let alone how it would have to be gained. Speaking of which...

"You might as well get used to it, because you know that Jake and Marco are going to have very similar opinions to mine on this and we are going to hear about it."

"Yeah, so I'd rather only have to go through it all one more time, not twenty." David retorted irritably. "Like that's even an option without your help, Marco will never let this go."

"At least where you're involved." I nodded, not quite able to stop myself despite how I felt. Marco, Rachel and David had corrupted me pretty damn good, a fact that amused or irritated David to no end, depending on who was my target.

"No mission is ever one hundred percent successful." 'Allen Birk' said calmly, turning the wheel and driving the car off road and through the trees until it came to a halt in what looked like a natural garage. The ground slanted into what resembled a ramp down into a rectangular area with earth walls and thick bushes surrounding three sides. Admittedly, we had helped it out a little, but most of it was natural and convenient. We only had to carefully cover one side of the car to remove it from sight completely. "Granted this is a bump that could have been avoided, but something unexpected was bound to happen eventually. What determines your worth is how you react to it. In this case, changing the location and taking care not to forget anything dislodged from the captive again."

"Which means we better pull the sewer system maps out again." I groaned as Allen killed the engine, all three of us jumping out. "Mom gave me weird looks the first time I asked to borrow them."

That had been a fun conversation. As a city planner, my mom had a _lot_ of schematics of the town at every level imaginable, but that didn't mean she'd give me such a schematic willingly. She'd outright asked me if I was planning to do something stupid in the sewers before going into a long lecture about how they were an extremely unsanitary, rat infested maze with potential water level rises capable of drowning me in some areas and that I should never even consider going down there before I could even say that it was for a school project. I actually did use it for part of an environmental report on the water's journey to and treatment at sanitation centres, so it wasn't really a lie. I just used it for something extra. I got an A on the report. Mom was thrilled. She didn't have to know that I was actually putting the knowledge of the layout to good use.

Still, it had been nice to actually contribute outside material to an operation. Usually how I contribute on my own is associated with the line 'and how does that make you feel?'.

"No, I made a point to map a few extra routes out for such an event." Allen said as he pulled the newest prisoner out of the car and tossed him effortlessly over his shoulder. It was nice that we had a nice, strong adult to help us out sometimes. The former spy was brilliant at what he did.

Jake and the others had been a bit wary of bringing him into the game, but the guy wouldn't take no for an answer. Though he did agree to only go out into the field for these abduction missions, his intellectual contributions had proven even more valuable. He was quick to form a plan for the abductions. He would park the car in an innocent, but out of sight place near a manhole while David and I would work half a mile away, drawing in Controllers with faces that would lower their guard. He also taught every Animorph the positions of each pressure point, which ones to hit to get a specific result and how to hit them, making knocking out unprepared Controllers a breeze. Then, it was a simple matter of getting the Controller to the car through the sewers and driving into the forest. The shack was set up to hold two people at a time and when they were freed, they were calmed and taken to the Birk farm to hide as farm hands. If we could get to them in time, we convinced their families to escape too. So far, we'd only managed to save a total of three families, being only their partner and kids, but it was a start. With this guy, we would have seventeen people living in the barn, including three children, all below fourteen, which was reconstructed by the Chee to be like a warm, two story house on the inside. Allen had worked it all out, with backup methods for escaping if they were necessary.

He was even making plans to enhance our network, but even he said that those would have to wait until better protection could be offered. So he stored them away for a distant future and spent most of his time training the freed hosts and families in stealth and self defence.

"Well, we'll have plenty of time to learn the new routes." David grunted moodily as he and I made quick work of the camouflaging. "This is the last guy we'll be freeing for a while."

It was true. We chose him specifically so we wouldn't have to worry about gathering a family. He had no living relatives or partners and the barn and food supplies could only comfortably take in one more person. None of us had found any other safe place to send freed humans yet, so we were stuck holding back now.

Still, one more person free was one more person free and that was enough to make me content for a while as we reached the shack and went inside.

As all the Animorphs knew that it served as both our hostage hideout and a weapons cache, Jake and Marco had convinced the Chee to put a little work on this place too. having been in construction for long enough to have helped build the pyramids, it was child's play for them to reinforce and repair the place. They even thought to put shutters on the windows and a huge rug on the floor, both of which helped keep the place warm and comfortable and the rug had the bonus of helping conceal the trap door to the weapons. Add a bed and a fridge and you could live there. As long as you're ok with the world being your bathroom.

Setting the guy down in a now cushioned chair, we bound and blindfolded him as quickly as we could. It wouldn't be long until he woke up and once he did, he couldn't be allowed to return to the Yeerks.

"So, what kind of information do you think this one will give us?" I wondered, staring at the guy curiously. He was fairly high up, around their middle ranks with plenty of what he considered underlings. Another reason why we chose him.

"Not much more than we've already got, most likely." David answered as he took a seat on the thick rug. "Most have given the same stuff, a pool entrance being built at the high school you guys are going to next semester, construction of a battle tower somewhere around here and the next town and the plan of the day to get the Sharing back in the world's good graces. Like we haven't already put an end to any chance of that happening." He added with a smirk. "Unless we can convince Jake to take down the weapons tower, none of it's been real useful to us."

"Hey, the woman with the info on the latest feeding site for Hork-Bajir groups allowed us to get another twelve captives for the colony. And the tip on the Taxxons allowed us to cause a cave in on all the hard work they put in to create a secondary Yeerk Pool and disguising it as a pond." I retorted, though any aggression that might have been behind it was ruined by the small grin on my face. We'd used up all of our bigger explosives on that pool party, but it was worth it. It had been for a 'get tossed in and infested' kind of deal. "And if this guy tells us about the next Kandrona to be put in place, then I will enjoy going and destroying it."

"Not likely. But I love the optimism and pleasure in the violent approach." David leaned back .

"Destroying stuff like the Pools and Kandronas saves a _lot_ of lives. Of course I'm keen to destroy them."

"Ah yes, the little saviour just doing what needs to be done." David shook his head, a large grin spreading across his face. "Don't try to kid me, you're hooked on the adrenaline rush."

"Well, I did have dreams of being a professional dirt biker and racing on the most extreme courses known to man, so yeah, obviously." I shrugged, trying to hide my unconscious flinch at the word 'did'. That was a bit of an issue right now.

I may have not done the best job of it, because David chose that exact moment to let the subject drop and moved into more mundane topics until I decided to head out. The Controller was waking up anyway and he couldn't know about the 'Andalite Bandits' being humans. Not even those already at the farm knew that we were almost all human. It was a security measure we'd all agreed to. The less people who knew, the better.

Looking up at the cloudless sky as I got outside, I contemplated growing wings for a moment before shaking my head. I'd been flying a lot lately, it would probably do me some good to keep my feet on the ground for a while. It was more normal.

However, since normal seemed to be boring me more and more lately, I went for a compromise and focused on a morph I hadn't used in ages. Fur grew all over me, my hair lengthened as I fell on all fours, and after a few minutes, I was galloping happily away as a majestic, grey horse. Getting a little amusement as the Controller shouted at the sound what he assumed the clip-clopping of Andalite hooves, I ran through the forest and towards Cassie's place. I'd flown from home this morning, so I'd need the spare clothes I left hidden at Cassie's barn under Rachel's suggestion before heading into town. I wanted to blow some of the money in the wallet currently hidden in a pair of cargo pants at the arcade. You know, try to be normal for a while.

Because, though I had been a lot of things lately, being a normal teenage boy was far from one of them and being normal was becoming harder and harder to do. I morphed horse because a bushwalk as a human seemed lame for crying out loud. The simple fact was that the more I involved myself in the war effort, the more I morphed into the amazing creatures at my disposal, the more normalcy dulled in my eyes. And honestly, that scared me a little bit.

I really needed to be reminded of normal thrills soon. The question was, how do I that when the animal forms I'd collected and the adrenaline rush of conflict was basically an amplified version of every form of entertainment I knew?

'_Maybe I should try dragging Ben or Cassie to The Gardens tomorrow.'_ I mused as I leapt over a downed log and swerved through the randomly placed trees. It sounded like a good idea to me. The zoo side of it should probably be avoided so as not to circum to the urge to acquire and try out more morphs, but the water slides, booths and rollercoasters sounded fun. And who doesn't like bumper cars? You can drive without a licence and the intention is to actually hit someone!

Suddenly, I couldn't wait. Better not blow all my money in that wallet at the arcade then, it's half of my saved up allowance.

Reaching the farm, I whinnied happily as I walked through the dirt path and around the fence to the opening. Cassie wasn't here, but neither was any of her family. Her mom was probably at work and there was no sign of her dad's truck. Even so, they always kept the barn unlocked, only sealing the more expensive medical tools and drugs in the makeshift operating room. It would be easy to go in and get my stuff without being seen. I just needed hands first. Which, strangely enough, were the first things to change as I started demorphing behind the barn, covered by trees and shrubbery on the other side. It had to be awesome living in a house with a forest starting around three sides of it.

/Warren? What are you doing there?/ Startled, I almost lost my concentration and stopped changing as Tobias' panicked voice hit my head. It didn't help that his panic had set off the still present horse half of my mind either. Why, was it bad that I was there? Could someone see me, was a bear nearby? What's wrong dammit?

/Never mind, it doesn't matter./ He stated before I could even respond. /Just get wings fast and head for the bad part of town. The Chee have all lost their holograms and ability to move and one is in a house down that way near a train track and a junk yard that is about to be raided by a possibly compromised SWAT team./

/Oh, you have got to be kidding me!/ I freaked, already doubling my efforts. I knew the area they were talking about. Mom always made it clear when the map came out to never go there. It was full of homeless people to be pitied and a lot of lowlifes that would kill, rape and God knows what else to anyone they found that weren't part of their networks. The town's nest of criminal activity. A horse would never get me there in time. If the SWAT team was already on the way, an eagle wouldn't get me there in time.

And even if it did, even without the Yeerks, we were running into a three way warzone. Us, thugs and cops. And the smart plan of letting the others take out each other first won't work with a vulnerable Chee in the middle of it.

/I wish, now morph and get going. Look for the patrol cars./ Tobias responded, his voice already dimming and starting to break up as he flew far and fast from me. /I'll get Ax and meet you there./

'_Understood.'_ He wouldn't have heard me by that point even if I could still use thought speak, he would have already been too far away. I couldn't even see him, though I never saw him to begin with. Horse eyes aren't really positioned to stare at the sky directly above them well.

Not that any of that mattered right now, all that mattered was saving the Chee. Ignoring the wave of lethargy as my human form reasserted itself, I went straight on to concentrating on deadly talons, a curved beak and golden feathers, feeling myself shrinking again immediately. Within minutes, the instincts kicked in and I flared my wings, power flapping until a nice, big thermal over the road lifted me high into the sky and soaring on my way.

At that moment, I was actually kind of glad that the defibrillator had been put in my chest. If it hadn't I never would have picked such a large bird of prey. Falcons and kestrels had always seemed a little more appealing to me, being more agile, sleek and fast. But in this case, the eagle was a far better choice. See, I already knew that I wouldn't be able to choose another morph when I got there, so my bird of prey morph was the one I'd have to join the fight as. But with the sheer speed and power of the golden eagle, that wasn't going to be a problem.

...

That was what I thought until I actually saw the situation. It wasn't hard to find the place. It was in that wonderful place we fondly call pandemonium.

A rhino had just burst out of a building that looked like it just might stay standing when a two year old tries to blow it down and out like a birthday candle. The bangs of gun shots, booms of wood being crushed and shattered, panicked humans and the frequent, furious trumpeting of an elephant were loud and constant, struggling to overlap each other in a constant battle just as intense as the physical one. It made my ears hurt.

/Hey guys, I need an update./ I called down. I had no idea what I was jumping into or what to do right now. I couldn't even see the whole fight with rundown wood encapsulating half of it. /I'm currently an eagle watching squad cars surround a rhino. Is there something better I can do or should I stick to trying to scare a cop with one impressive gun into making a wrong turn?/

/Cassie's shot in the back and can't move her back legs, Marco's bleeding from a bad stab wound, the Chee Lourdes is sitting in a closet with Cassie right in the middle of the fight and I _really_ wanna strike this jerk with the gun./ Rachel snapped irritably right before another bang and furious trumpet hit my ears. A spit second later, a ridiculously skinny guy came out screaming. And by that I mean he flew right out the window with the speed and direction that reeked of Rachel's help and screamed all the way to ground, where he face planted and remained still as glass showered all around him. /Well, the last one's accomplished./ She sounded pretty satisfied. It was a weird mix with her obvious fear and worry.

/Give me a gap and direct me back inside./ Jake called, turning my attention back to the rhino looking left and right unsurely. /I'm lost out here./

/Sir, yes sir!/ I cheered a little too enthusiastically for the situation. I couldn't help it, I got to dive and dodge projectile obstacles. It was like my old track at the construction site times five on the thrill factor. /Slowly turn a little to the right...and wait for it.../ I said slowly, redirecting him to the building as I waited. I just needed the right moment and then.../now!/

Spilling air from my wings, I dived right toward a car's path just as it was slowing down and swooped up hard just as I was about to crash into it, adding a loud screech to the layers of noises as my wicked talons slid dug into the car's glass window on my way up.

"AAHHH!" Startled, the driver jumped and hit the accelerator, speeding and slamming into another vehicle, leaving more than enough room for Jake to charge back the way he came. Ok, maybe his bulk hit the boot of a third car and spun it around. At least he didn't flip it.

"Oh come on! Now there's an eagle involved too?"

"Look out, it's coming back down!"

"Just dodge it, and wait for the vet to get here." The guy in charge ordered before ducking as I swooped him. I only meant to scare him, but I ended up taking his hat while I was at it. Oops. All well, better give it back.

Coming back around, I startled another two cops by flaring my wings and pulling myself upright before gliding between them and dumping the hat right on a third guy's face. By the time I was done, the guys inside were screaming again as another hole was blown through the wall by an angry rhino.

BLAM BLAM!

/Cassie! Marco!/

/NO!/ Oh, that sounded really bad.

/Warren, why are you just floating around?/ Tobias cried right as a brown blur that was a diving hawk shot right past me. Within seconds, he had a cop falling on his butt with a scream and had taking to flying through the cops like crazy. With the guy's gun in his talons. An airborne predator with incredible vision and a rifle. Not your average hand gun the cops had on their hips, a SWAT team member's rifle. The cops were terrified. Even the guy Rachel had thrown out the window was creeping desperately for the cover that was a patrol car. Though I'm surprised that he could carry it. That thing was heavy.

"Oh, what next? If a whale shows up, I'm outta here!"

"Just stay clear, I see the vet now."

That got me going again. Coming right down the road was a truck from The Gardens. The kind that Cassie told me they used to transport large animals to and from the zoo.

/Time to go!/ I shouted, preparing for a dive. Looking into the building through Jake's latest hole, It was now easy to see what was going on. Jake had stopped because a hateful looking cop was aiming his rifle right at an already bleeding Rachel. That wasn't good. Like I said, these guns weren't toys. SWAT teams use what's classified as light military level weapons. In this case, assault rifles. Those things definitely _can_ hurt an elephant, especially up close. One move from either of them and they were dead. Add that to the fact that I could see an unmoving mesh of black and grey fur down in a hole by Rachel's feet...

Surging down at a speed that only Jake's falcon morph could surpass, a dived right down and through the hole before expanding my enormous wings and power flapping right in, faster than anyone inside could react to. The cop, who I was confident in claiming was a Controller with the way he glared and talked to the others about 'handing over the android', barely even had time to register the sound of my wings flapping before I'd already shot right past him, ripping the gun from his hands in the process, and started a victory lap around the room.

"NO!" The cop didn't even have time to pale as Rachel brought the Chee down like a bludgeon. One blow was all it took for the guy's eyes to bug out before he fell to the ground. He was still alive, I could see his rising and falling chest, but he definitely out.

/Sorry if that upset you Lourdes./ Rachel muttered, at least trying to sound apologetic through her misery as she placed the Chee's bent form haphazardly over Jake's neck before reaching down for the others.

"It was the best way to end it." Lourdes said simply, surprising me a little with just how calm she was. "Now, it would be wise to evacuate."

/Not until I pick up the others./ Rachel said stubbornly, already dropping her trunk into the hole and wrapping it around Marco's leg. Despite everything outside, including the voice of Cassie's mom planning to apprehend us, Jake said nothing. He just stood there. Not that it took a genius to know what was wrong.

In the last full team mission we'd taken, I died. In Jake's arms. Arguably because he was too busy being out of it. The others all almost died too, making it worse. It didn't matter that the circumstances allowed me to come back to the land of the living, that we were all ok, it still had a crippling impact on Jake. He still had frequent nightmares of when I died. Was still incredibly guilt ridden and angry at himself. Terrified for all of us and second guessing his every thought. It was why we hadn't tried anything that huge since. The Hork-Bajir we caught were with the aid of Toby. The pool thing was an in and out stealth job, simply planting the bombs and running during a small distraction that involved the Taxxons chasing after a giraffe. We might have all been there to ensure success, but only four of us actually did anything at all and my job was simply run away and kick once in a while. We'd been trying to build Jake's self confidence back up by having him join me and David with most our little abductions, but now, with two unmoving Animorphs being taken down in an instant...

/Auugghhh...someone get that jerk's badge number. I wanna sue./ Marco groaned, flooding my system with relief as he opened his eyes.

/You're alive!/ Rachel cried, thoroughly stunned.

/Sorry, you'll have to wait to moan and wail over my coffin. Now can we world get right side up again please?/ He grunted weakly. In her surprise, Rachel had stopped lifting him, leaving him hanging upside down by his foot.

/What about Cassie?/ Jake demanded, suddenly looking and sounding a lot more restless as Rachel carefully put Marco on her back, moving him out of my way so I could get a clear view of the wolf.

/She's breathing Jake. Though she really needs to demorph soon./ I grunted, soothing him as Rachel carefully picked Cassie up and in front of Marco. Having enough, I dropped down on her too and hid myself within Marco's bulk. My wings were killing me, flying around the room constantly with a big gun in my talons and no wind or thermals was murder.

"Madam, I must insist on an escort, there are both the animals and the criminals in there."

"Fine, then make sure you stay out of the way. I've only got so many tranquilizers."

/Prince Jake, it is time to make our leave./ Ax' voice suddenly appeared as something small, black and white ran in through the hole not leading to the cops. A proper look past Marco, Cassie and Rachel's bulk allowed me to instantly recognise it as one of the most horrifying creatures to ever walk the earth. The dreaded, globally feared skunk. /The law enforcement are surrounding the building and Cassie's mother only requires a clear shot./

/Right. Ax, clear a path. Rachel, grab him on the way out./ Jake ordered. Within a second, a group of cops ran into formation around the hole only for Ax to raise his tail and fire without warning.

"AAHHH, SKUNK!"

"Oh GOD, that wreaks!"

"I can't-AHH!" The well trained SWAT proved to be no match for the power of a kitten sized skunk, losing their discipline and their focus for more than long enough for Jake and Rachel to charge out without worry of anything more than the men running out of the way. Not that I blame them. Birds have weak sense of smell and the stink spray was fired in the opposite direction, but I still wanted to wretch at the smell of it. It's putrid.

"They're getting away! Get in there!"

"The skunk won't stop spraying! Aw God, how do you make such a horrible smell?"

'Would you move, I can't get a shot!"

"Look out, here comes that crazy hawk again!" The cop had to knock Cassie's mom out of the way as Tobias swooped in and fluttered about their gathering like a psycho, sending them all ducking and stumbling before flying back out of their reach.

Meanwhile, Ax was quickly pulled up to the safety of Rachel's trunk and held out before us, giving him a much better range to spray as we ran, ensuring us a clear way for this mini stampede. Good thing too, because Jake was the only one who'd been there at the beginning of the little showdown who wasn't suffering a major wound.

/Guys, we need to get clear fast. I'm not as well as I thought./ Marco muttered, a whimper leaving his mouth as his arms slackened a little. A few grunts and groans were leaving Cassie's jaw, indicating that she was waking up, but that wouldn't do her anything good until she could demorph. Then there was Rachel. Our current taxi service had a nasty looking bullet wound pouring blood down her head and I could feel her body starting to grow sluggish. She was going to pass out soon.

/So where do we go?/ I asked, opening my wings and taking to the sky again. My absent weight wouldn't even be noticed by Rachel if she wasn't suffering from blood loss, but at least if I flew with Tobias I could help distract and avoid trouble. I left the gun with Marco though, taking off with that might have pulled me to the ground. I'm not used to carrying such heavy things, without momentum, I was sure that I'd just fall. I could have been wrong, but why take the risk? /We need to get these guys off our trail before-/

Pop!

/Exactly that happens?/ Marco forced out, not quite managing his usual humorous tone.

/Cassie, tell your mom to stop shooting at us!/ Rachel cried as another tranquilizer dart flew by her ear. /It's rather rude./

"Turn right." Lourdes said calmly, completely unperturbed by the dicey situation. "There is a junk yard to the right. You can hide me in there until the crisis of the Chee-net is over and there is plenty of cover for those who need to to use to morph. Meanwhile, your birds can lead the police team away if necessary."

/Sounds like a plan./ Jake agreed, immediately turning right with Rachel close behind. Tobias and I however, flapped around noticeably for a moment before heading to the left, already preparing to double back and annoy the cops again if we needed to. /Marco, Cassie, don't wait any longer, demorph. Rachel, you do it the second you're completely blocked from sight in there./

/And don't lose that gun!/ I added, amusing myself a little as it came out like a child telling off his parent for stealing a cookie. /That is one souvenir I intend to keep./

/That's stealing from the cops!/ Tobias cried incredulously.

/No, I stole it from a Controller./ I corrected him matter of factly as we pushed ourselves high in the air before perching on a tall, abandoned building. /Besides, with the Yeerks in the police force, the cops' weapons are the Yeerks' weapons and I'd rather limit the number of weapons they have. And it makes up for the Dracon Beam we forgot this morning./ I added as an afterthought only to mentally slap myself when I realised the others heard it.

/You left a Dracon Beam somewhere?/ Jake cried incredulously.

/Such an event could have...troubling consequences./ Ax added calmly. Personally, I still found it weird how I don't hear mistrust and dislike when he talks to me anymore.

/Um, yeah, that already happened. Watch out for a small explosion in an alley on the news tonight./ I muttered sheepishly before changing the subject. /Now, how about we focus on now and get this over with? Then can someone please tell me what exactly is the whole story to this anyway?/ Seriously, I really needed an explanation to all this. Since when is it even possible to have such a major glitch in the Chee system?


	3. The Exposure Part 3: Ben

**AN:** And we're back! Thanks again for the reviews and whatnot everyone. Anyway, go ahead and read on.

* * *

**The Exposure Part 3**

**Ben**

I wasn't sure why, but I still hadn't left the forest. It was a little weird to be honest. I guessed that a part of it was my fear. I was afraid that someone actually had noticed me and the logical side of my brain told me that the forest was safe. If I stayed in here for a while, no one's recollection was likely to be triggered and I could go home without fear of my dad watching disappointedly as I was dragged away in handcuffs. But mostly, it was just my feet wondering down some unseen path, my mind only really paying enough attention so that I knew how to get back to town.

My stomach rumbled a few times along the way, but I ignored it. I'd missed lunch, but I doubted it'd be noticed. Mom was out of town for the weekend, hired for wedding photos and my brothers were hanging out and sleeping over at one friend or another's houses until tomorrow night. That only left me and Dad in the house and he was so busy marking test papers, he wouldn't notice if a bear barged in and tore the place apart, so long as it left his study alone.

It wasn't until I found a small clearing with what looked like an almost deliberate path through the trees that I finally stopped walking and sat down with my back pressed against a tree, resting my aching feet. I wasn't a bush walker, or even much of a walker period, and this was tiring me out good. Taking off my shoes and socks, I massaged the balls of my feet and heels and looked around the area, observing it critically. Warren admitted that he came out here a lot, though now I suspected that it was more for unorthodox business than pleasure, and always seemed pretty confident of the lack of danger near the town, but I wasn't so convinced. I checked out the list for native animals to our area recently and was fully aware that poisonous snakes, coyotes, bobcats, wolves and black bears, among other things, were all known to live in this forest. Wolves and coyotes weren't likely to attack a human, but the rest were another story and they could appear at any time.

It wasn't until I'd given the place three looks over that I was satisfied. There was no large bodily waste or water sources nearby. No sign of even a racoon or a deer being here for a while, only a few rodents, birds and lots of bugs. There could be snakes nearby, but if I didn't bother them then they probably wouldn't bother me. Little prey meant few, if any predators. I was safe for now.

'_But then again...'_ I frowned, carefully pulling the strange weapon out of my pocket. Making sure that the latch was staying down and preventing an accidental fire, I ran my fingers over every inch of it for what was probably the fifth time. I just...how did a human get this thing? And while we're on that subject, where did humans get the ability to shapeshift?

There were a lot of theories people like throwing around on the possible ways of gaining super powers, the most popular being nuclear waste and radiation. Most others claim some form of magic. I'd always just brushed them off as nonsense. Magic was superstition and the other two would just kill you. Now though, I'd almost believe the first two if it wasn't for the fact that multiple people had seemingly gained the exact same ability and were attacking people that had weapons about two hundred years beyond modern day technology.

"So where do you come from?" I muttered to myself, passing the weapon from one hand to another. If I could get that answer, if I could learn who made it, maybe I could clear up some of the blank spaces in the picture. Of course, I'd thought that when I picked up this thing and it only made more blank spaces, so I probably shouldn't get my hopes up. Besides, it wasn't like that answer was going to flop into my lap.

"Aaarrrrhhhh!" Resting the thing on my leg, I thrust my hands into my hair and groaned frustratedly. This was a never ending puzzle. The pieces were too obscure to possibly see the whole picture on my own. The only way that I was going to get anywhere was to confront someone already involved about it and I didn't need to know about a deadly laser to know that was risky. I didn't know how Warren or Cassie would react and I doubted I'd get anything nice from David even if I did have the spine and knowledge to track that attitude problem down. The guys with these weapons might fry me on the spot. Level one on the thing blew up half a room! What kind of people carry that kind of power around in their day to day lives?

"This has all just been a waste of time, hasn't it?" I sighed, closing my eyes in defeat. I just kept going around in circles. I'd been at this for well over a month and I wasn't really any closer to the truth than that night when I watched the feathers recede from Warren's arm after hearing him mention going on a raid to save some girl or woman's people. I had a better idea of how he was saving people and what the kind of danger that put him in now, but that was about it. No real answers.

I was brought tight out of my brooding a second later however, as a bustling in the bushes opposite me started right out of the blue, freaking me out. Panicking, I whipped up the weapon with shaky hands. Not that it would do anything, I couldn't get my sweaty, shaking fingers to lift the latch. However, all my fear went away a few seconds later as a squirrel poked its head out cautiously before dashing to and up the closest tree, leaving me sighing in relief and a little embarrassment. I got work up over a lousy squirrel! What was it gonna do, nibble on my toe?

"I thought you were a bobcat or something." I muttered as I watched it scamper around. I felt pretty silly to be honest. Even if it was a bobcat, I'm a bit big of a target, unless there was no small prey to feed on. This wasn't 'When Animals Attack', not every creature was out to get me.

I let my eyes trail it for a few minutes, just watching it as it turned its head rapidly before running around like it was overcharged, a bundle of pure energy. It reminded me of little kids in a playroom, wanting to play with every toy at once and running wherever they saw something new. Or someone overloaded with caffeine.

"I wonder how you see this world." I mused as it turned its head yet again to stare fretfully at me. It was something that I was wondering about a lot lately. Every time I saw a dog, I grew curious as to what its vision was truly like, how its mind interpreted the world, what stories their sense of smell told them. Every time I saw a bird, I jealously wondered what it was like to fly on your own wings, to see the world so far away and yet with so much detail. And now, this little squirrel. I wondered how big the world seemed to him. How he handled the mountain load of energy in his tiny body. What it felt like to run and climb so easily up and around the trees.

Ever since I realised that Warren could turn into animals and got over the fear and shock of it all, I'd grown curious. And admittedly, a little jealous. I wanted to experience it too. I wanted to get inside the minds of these animals, see the world from their perspectives and delve into the natures of their minds, instincts and desires better than anyone could ever hope to. I wanted to feel their strength, their unique talents and abilities. Maybe even fly, or gain a feline's grace or a bear's raw power. Imagine all that I could learn about them. And all that I could do.

"Oh squirrel, what I'd give just to be able to turn into you." I grinned sadly as I watched it run out of sight. That was the truth, I would settle for just the squirrel's form and world to explore. But yeah right, like that was gonna-

"Run blondy!" My panic returned full force as the gruff bark hit my ears. Pulling my eyes back down to the ground I found a boy of African descent with makeshift bow in his hand and a frantic look on his face running right toward me. But what really scared me, multiplying what the panicked bark had created, was the creature behind him.

It was over seven feet tall and reptilian. Its bipedal form reminded me a little of that lizard villain in Spiderman, but with a much thinner, faster body. And this one was covered in deadly blades all over its arms, legs and tail, in addition to the horns on its head, a wicked looking beak with teeth in it instead of the reptilian jaw you'd expect and razor sharp claws on its hands and tyrannosaurus type feet.

"AAAAHHHH!" Scrambling to my feet, I turned to run only to fall into my usual routine and trip over a tree root, dropping the weapon and watching it roll away in the process. Breathing erratically as my fear ran like wildfire, I stumbled to get myself up again. I had to get away, I had to...

"ARGH!" My feet freezing at the scream, my head whipped back just in time to see the boy fly right off his feet and hit the ground with a thump, a nice, long gash releasing blood from his upper arm. The monster however, kept going. Right for me.

I couldn't do anything but watch with wide, terrified eyes as it came right at me, a keen, cruel look crossing its face as it...well, I think it was a laugh. It sure didn't sound pleasant either.

It was fast, way faster than I was. Way faster than I could ever hope to be. I could never get away, it would kill me before I got six feet. And I had no way to defend myself. I mean, that thing was a walking weapon...that's it! The weapon! Where'd it go, where'd it go?

It took only a second to find it, having been halted in its tracks by a rock. Not looking back, I dived at it, fumbling with it the second the cool, black metal was in my hands.

"Uuh! Come on!" I freaked, struggling once again to get the hatch up. However, before I could, the monster had reached me. I arched and screamed as a clawed foot came down on my lower back, the walking blade machine laughing over me as his claws ripped into the back of my shirt and pierced me just deep enough to draw blood.

"Gwafgwafgwaf! I got you reb-Argh!" Just at that moment, right as the pressure on my back was starting to intensify, the freak screamed and jerked his foot up. Gasping as it whipped around to face the other boy, I had to force myself into a very quick roll to avoid having my neck sliced open by the tail blade. As I did, I got a split second image of what happened. The boy must have hidden it under his overly large shirt, because planted firmly in this creature's hip was a roughly made arrow.

"You pay human." It snarled viciously, ripping the wood and pointy stone right out. It looked like it hadn't done any more than anger the freak.

Mine however, was another story. The monster was already moving swiftly to the kneeling boy, its arm blades ready to slice his head off. I couldn't let that happen. Finally managing to get the latch up, I didn't even think. I simply followed the instinctual urges of protecting another and self preservation and fired.

Seeing the laser flash, the boy dropped his jaw and quickly forced himself to roll as fast as he could out of the line of fire, ignoring the pain in his arm completely as the laser struck the monster dead centre between his shoulder blades.

"AAUURRGGHH!" The blood curdling scream that left the creature's mouth at that moment would probably haunt me for the rest of my life. The image would for sure. Before I'd even registered what I'd done, I was watching wide eyed and horrified as the creature's entire body was obliterated right in front of my eyes. By the time my finger let go of the button and my shaking hands dropped the weapon, there wasn't even a single trace left of the beast.

"I...I just, I..." I couldn't process it. That thing, whatever it was, was alive and sentient. And I'd just...

My knees chose to grow weak and drop me at that very moment. Not that it mattered all that much, within seconds, all of my fear and anxieties, along with what I'd just done, overwhelmed me and the adrenaline ran out. My vision darkened and I fell all the way down. I didn't even stay conscious enough to remember hitting the ground face first.

...

The pain in my head was the first thing to come back to me as consciousness returned. Raising my hand to my forehead, I tentatively rubbed a small bump just above my right eyebrow, flinching as my fingers made contact. Great, that was going to hurt for quite a while. It was probably just the position of it, but it hurt even more than the clawed foot that had dug into my...

I shot right up as everything came back, only to whimper as the pain intensified in my head and forced me back down and flinch again as my back wounds came down a little too hard. Breathing hard, I forced my eyes open and looked around, not relaxing even slightly until I knew that the creature wasn't around. It didn't matter that I saw it blow up into nothing. I don't think my mind was willing to accept that I'd done such a thing anyway. All I cared about was ensuring that I wasn't about to lose my head to a blade melded into reptilian flesh.

"Take it easy blondy. We're the only ones here." I tensed for a second before the boy from before came into my field of vision, taking a seat beside me. Now that I was calming and we weren't running for our lives, I could actually get a good look at him. He looked like he'd been out in the forest for a good while. His clothes were covered in dirt and grass stains and ripped in more than a few places. They seemed a little loose on his form too, like they were meant for someone with a little more meat on him. He was pretty fit. The muscles his clothes didn't hide were small, but defined, like a track runner's. His black hair was tangled and longer than the average guy's, reaching the bottom of his neck and as dirty as his clothes. Combined all that with the hardened look in his dark brown eyes, I'd say it was safe to say that he'd been in the forest for quite a while.

"Who are you?" I asked, pulling myself up again at much slower pace. It wasn't until then, when my arm brushed against my side, that I noticed my shirt was missing, though I found that I'd been resting head on it. Checking myself over for any other differences, I made myself relax as I found the only other thing done was a few leaves carefully placed and stuck to the wounds in my back.

"My name's Hunter." He said calmly, watching stoically as I checked myself over. "The leaves are all well cleaned and being used as bandages. They're being held in place by the cream I used to help sooth your wounds. They aren't deep and shouldn't get infected as long as you take care of them. I can't do anything for the bump though. You hit a rock on your way down."

"Yeah, that sounds like me." I muttered, grimacing a little. Even passing out, I still managed to find a way to klutz my way into an injury. "Thanks for helping me. I'm Ben." I added, turning to him appreciatively before grabbing my shirt and carefully putting it back on, careful not irritate my head or knock off the leaves.

"It's fine. So, is anyone out here with you?" He asked, finally letting the emotionless look drop to reveal a little curiosity. "Do you have a group?"

"No. Why would I?" I asked slowly, growing confused. What would I need a group for out in the forest? Was I really that far in?

"Well, it's suicide to run away from the Yeerks without help." Hunter responded, raising an eyebrow. "In case you didn't notice before, their Hork-Bajir would catch and kill you in no time."

"Hork-Bajir? Is that what that thing was called?" I asked, a bubble of excitement growing in my gut as his raised eyebrow turned disbelieving. If he knew what that creature was, maybe he could tell me more about what I wanted to know. I mean, they'd be connected, right? All these weird, out of this world things in one place, they had to be connected. It was too big of a coincidence if they weren't. "And what are Yeerks?" I added hastily. That word struck a chord. I think Warren had said the word once when I was eavesdropping. It sounded like they could be the key to this mystery.

"You...you have a Dracon Beam and you don't know about Yeerks? Or Hork-Bajir or any of it?" Hunter cried, staring at me with sheer disbelief. So, the weapon's called a Dracon Beam huh? Interesting. "Did that blow to your head knock some screws loose?"

"No. My memory's fine." I shook my head, only getting a sceptical raised eyebrow in return. "See, I kinda...scavenged the Dracon Beam while I was...snooping." I admitted sheepishly.

"Say what?" Hunter asked, his other eyebrow joining the first as his looked turned to one of disbelief.

"Yeah, I saw something unusual, like far from normal or explainable by normal human life. One of my friends was somehow involved and I was worried about him, so I've been snooping, trying to learn more. But so far, all I know about is shapeshifters, raids and kidnappings meant to result in freedom somehow, this weapon and now that there are reptilian, heavily bladed creatures called Hork-Bajir running around looking to slice people's heads off." I finished with a shudder at the last bit. That settled it, Warren was in a hell of a lot of trouble. If the enemy's willing to slaughter innocent kids then Warren's on the right side at least, not that I doubted him, but it was nice to have evidence to back my beliefs. Still, with the amount of dangerous stuff these guys had to use against him, how was he still alive? And why would he take this on himself?

So many questions still needed answering. However, I might have been in luck. Hunter knew stuff. He could answer my questions.

"This is amazing." He drawled sarcastically, bringing me back from my thoughts as he rubbed his face. "I'd assumed you broke out and fled like me. I hoped that you had a group of your own that could help mine. And you're telling me that you're just a kid that was in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

"Yeah, pretty much." I nodded apologetically as he pulled himself up and slung a bag made of leaves filled with self-made arrows onto his back. He must have retrieved it from wherever he left if while I was out cold. "What do you need help for?"

"You shouldn't worry about it." He responded gruffly, slowly walking back the way he came. "You'll only put your life in danger blondy. You passed out at nuking one alien. How do you expect to handle ten or twenty?"

That stopped me for a moment. How would I handle something like that? I was a klutz, I was easily scared and intimidated. I wasn't help, if anything, I'd probably pass out and be a hindrance, useless weight to drag around.

But this kid couldn't do it either, if that's what he needed help with. His arrow only annoyed the Hork-Bajir before. I could give him the Dracon Beam though. That might help. Besides, I never wanted to get involved in a battle, I wanted answers.

"You can't stop it on your own, so I'm going to make you a deal." I stated, climbing to my feet. Stopping in place, he turned back to me with an annoyed frown.

"I've already spent too much time taking care of you, keeping you safe." He grunted, his hand tightening around his bow. "I was separated from my group of runaway hosts when the Hork-Bajir attacked. I have to find them and help them before they're killed or reinfested."

"Then I'll come with you." I declared, moving on quickly as his mouth opened for an irritated argument. "I'll come with you and you explain to me what's going on, what you know about all of this. In return, I'll give you the Dracon Beam."

"You'll hand that thing over?" Hunter asked, his face and voice regaining their previously stoic form. "You'd hand over a powerful weapon, knowing that you may not even get out of this forest alive and free, in exchange for an explanation as to who will try to kill or infest you?"

"Yes." I answered simply. Honestly I hadn't thought too much into it. How much danger the trees suddenly held for me. If these Hork-Bajir found me, they probably wouldn't care if I was part of this runaway group or not. They'd kill me. But that didn't mean that I'd be able to fire on another one anyway. Hitting the first one was just a fluke, I knew that, and besides, even if they were cold killers, that didn't mean I wanted to be one. If I was paying attention to the voice that is my morality in the back of my head right now, giving it even the slightest bit of attention, I'd probably snap just like Warren did just before the time I discovered his secret. Wow, was there a similarity there? Is this what he did?

Shaking my head, I shoved it all down for later. No getting distracted right now. I had a deal to make. There wasn't anything I could do with that right now, I could only get the answers I so desperately wanted. The Dracon Beam was better in Hunter's hands anyway. I'd help save lives just by giving it to him and he clearly had the aim and steady hands to use it. He fired an arrow right on target with an injured arm!

"The longer you're with me, the more danger you'll be in." Hunter warned me. But I just grinned at that. He was warning me of what I was getting into, not saying no.

"I know." I nodded. "But my friend is in the middle of whatever's going on. I'm willing to take the risk."

"Ok then." He shrugged, motioning me forward as he started on his way again, walking with quick strides. "Probably best for you if you do know. Everyone's a target at some level after all. But if your friend is involved, you won't like what you hear."

"Well, it's too late to be ignorant." Was my response as I jogged to catch up before falling into stride alongside him. "Besides, I can't help him if I don't know what's going on and that's all I want to do."

"You still think like that even after you found out your life will be on the line?" Hunter asked emotionlessly, looking at me through the corner of his eye. However, his face spoke of a more positive reaction as I nodded. He wasn't facing me, but I could still make out a genuine look of approval. "You're loyal, I'll give you that."

He talked the whole way as we walked. He held true to our deal and didn't ask for the Dracon Beam yet. Instead, he told me to have it at the ready and notched an arrow in his bow. He told me that Hork-Bajir were masters of the forest environment and that it was much safer for us if we were both prepared to defend ourselves.

The whole time we walked, I didn't trip or fall even once, despite the speed we were moving at. But I didn't notice that until long after our stride had stopped. I was too wrapped up in what he was telling me. Too stunned and horrified at just what the Yeerks were and what they did to their victims. Death was a mercy most of them would beg for.

Now I also knew I understood exactly why Warren had cracked before, creating the chain of events that would lead me to this spot. Because like me, he had fought a host and won. Like me, he had killed something innocent to stop something monstrous. It connected with everything that he told me, filled in the gaps that the flag warnings I pitched as he told me his story in his room so long ago. I had the whole picture now. I experienced a piece of it myself now too.

I just hoped that I could handle it. If I was going to help Warren, I couldn't let myself sink into that mental trap. Regardless of how easy it was to do just that.


	4. The Exposure Part 4: Warren

**AN: **This one's a little late. Sorry about that, but I got stuck with a blackout yesterday. Anyway, I hope you enjoy. I find this one pretty funny.

* * *

**The Exposure Part 4**

**Warren**

Well, this was just terrific. Seriously, what could possibly be better?

Apparently every Chee on the planet was currently in an immobile, hologram deficient state, randomly hidden from sight and Lourdes was only one of two Chee that were in immediate danger of being discovered. We had no chance of getting to the other one, he was locked away in a power plant and could never be recovered without being seen. Though he was safe from prying eyes. For another eight hours, at which time he'd be busted.

On the bright side, we knew what we had to do to fix this. Go to the Chee's ship and hit the reboot. We even knew where it was. But of course, it was in the one place even our best morphs would be reduced to the basic size and shape of a sardine can. One of the deepest crevices in the freaking ocean.

"Well, this is depressing." Rachel snapped, kicking at a few fallen leaves. For once, we weren't congregating in Cassie's barn, but Tobias' meadow. Cassie's dad was likely to be home by now and we didn't want to risk getting busted or Cassie getting work to do. We had enough to drive us crazy as it is. "We're beat before we've even started. All this freaking help to escape the public eye and still we're screwed."

That was another thing that was bugging me. The others had told me all about what happened to Erek at the mall, not to mention the bus and walk home. A freaking gorilla carries a 'person' out of a store, onto a bus and down a big street and no one notices? With the mall's security cameras defecting at the same point in time? And I don't know about you, but no bus driver I ever met would have missed the fact that something like a _gorilla_ had jumped on his bus. This had The Ellimist or Crayak written all over it, but I couldn't figure out which one. It didn't fit either of their styles. Unless they were both playing around here. Who else had the power to enter the Pemalite ship and turn off their major programs only to hide the damage from the world? Who else had the power to make everyone fail to notice such obvious situations?

/Are there no creatures native to this world capable or surviving such a depth?/ Ax asked, pulling me back to the current page. Like I said before, we knew exactly where to go and what to do, but the Chee's own safety precautions were our downfall. The others had dolphin and shark morphs and Cassie also had a humpback whale morph, but even the whale wasn't built to handle the kind of pressure under three miles of water. Nothing with a backbone was.

"I can think of a few." I admitted, though I hastily went on before anyone got any ideas. "But none of them will be of any help to us."

"And why's that?" Jake asked wearily. I flinched a little as he looked at me. His eyes were still so haunted, especially when they focused on me. They always moved to my gut too, imagining the slashed wounds from Howler blades impaling me. It didn't help that his trailing eyes kept bringing that moment back to me too and I wasn't over it, despite how I acted. How could I be? I may have smiled and talked the whole way through it, but I still died a slow, painful death. It wasn't exactly an event that was likely to leave your mind.

"Because they're small." I started, struggling to keep my voice calm and forcing myself back to the present issue. "We'd never even reach the ocean floor before the time limit was exceeded like twenty times over at least, probably more. Not that we'd ever be able to acquire them anyway." I rattled on. Hey, it helped. "Those animals live on the deep ocean floor. They survive using the heat and energy from black smokers, thermal vents, in place of the sun. They need the pressure to survive, without it, they die long before they reach the surface. I channel surfed onto a documentary in boredom last week." I added as Cassie gave me a look.

"Perfect! By the time the only creatures on Earth that could help us can be acquired or morphed, we'd already crushed into tiny cubes?" Marco yelled exasperatedly, throwing his hands up.

"I'd say that's about right." Cassie agreed, her voice matching the troubled look on her face. "Sperm whales are the deepest divers and even they don't go do that far. It's just too much pressure. Nothing with a backbone could ever hope to withstand that kind of pressure."

/And it's not like anything boneless is big or fast./ Tobias sighed.

"Well, that's not entirely true, there is the giant...that's it!" Cassie cried, startling all of us, even Tobias and Ax, as she practically jumped up and down in excitement, beaming a look of elation our way. "Calamari!"

"Snails?" Rachel asked sceptically, crossing her arms. "That doesn't sound all that helpful."

"No, not-"

/I do not particularly like snails./ Ax interrupted, irritating Cassie further. /They are most revolting creatures to eat. The meat portion was fine, but it was covered in horrible slime./

"Wait, you ate a snail raw? Fresh off the ground?" Marco asked, a little sickened at the thought.

/I stepped on it while feeding in Tobias' meadow./

"I thought you Andalites were herbivores." I frowned confusedly.

/We can feed on meat if it's small, we simply prefer not to./ Ax responded.

"Guys, we're not here to talk about snails or Ax' eating habits." Jake butted in, moving on quickly as Rachel opened her mouth to retort. "Snails are escargot, not calamari."

"Oh." Rachel turned a little sheepish at that. A little moody too, strangely enough.

"I was talking about-"

/How's an octopus supposed to help?/ Tobias asked, leaving Cassie growing red with anger. She'd been cut off again. /I don't know anything about their biology, but I doubt they're fast enough to help even if they could survive that kind of pressure./

"SQUID!" Cassie screamed, getting a few scared cries in return. I almost fell off my feet as I jumped. "I was talking about giant SQUID!"

/Then why'd you say calamari? That comes from-/

"Who cares?" Cassie snapped exasperatedly, her arms almost hitting everyone around her as they flew up.

"I do!" I cried, pressing a hand to my belly as it made a particularly loud grumble. "I haven't eaten since breakfast and all this talk about food is really making me hungry. How about we continue this at McDonalds?"

"I don't know, I'm growing a craving for sea food." Marco said thoughtfully. "Does fish and chips sound good to you?"

"Add some prawns and you got a deal."

"Ok, but no sushi. Did you see that show where they found worms getting into that guy's head? I told you nothing good comes from eating raw fish."

"I know, I was there when Rachel told you about that show."

"There was a lot of things in that show that were horrifying." Rachel shivered. "There was another one where a woman had a worm living in a hole it made in her head."

"Eww. Rachel, I wanna eat, not lose my appetite." I groaned, scrunching my face in disgust.

"Wasn't that the show where a worm travelled the baby's body and tried to come out through his e-" Jake asked.

"No, that was a picture you found on the internet." Marco shook his head. "Poor baby though, that had had to be painful. Cassie, why'd you go and lead us to invader worms?"

"I didn't! You did!" Cassie shouted, breathing deeply. "I brought up cala...I mean..."

We all just stared at her as she glared at us all, looking ready to rip a few of our heads off before a small giggle escaped Rachel's mouth. It wasn't even a second later that Jake started shaking with mirth, biting his lip and Marco's face split into a huge smile before we all broke out laughing. Marco ended up leaning against my back so he wouldn't fall over while I was doubled over, holding my stomach. Rachel had taken to leaning against the tree Tobias was resting on while Jake and Cassie had simply let themselves fall butt first to the ground, Jake laying down. We were being absolutely absurd.

"Some please go and tell the Chee that they're doomed." Rachel grinned as our laughter dissolved into frequent chuckles and giggles. "Their last hope is a bunch of teenagers who have gotten caught talking about television shows, worms and food. Twice."

"I agree with what Erek said earlier." Marco nodded, barely stopping himself from laughing again as he finally let me back up. "How did we survive this long?"

"Sheer dumb luck?" I offered amusedly.

"Definitely."

"Hey, I'd say it's because we're that good." Rachel retorted. "We're so great, we kick the Yeerks' nonexistent butts and while getting lost in random conversation."

"You think so? Well then, next time we're breaking into a Yeerk compound, I'll be sure to regale you with-"

"Guys, you're doing it again." Jake interrupted, his own amusement starting to calm down as he tapped his wrist. "Ticktoc. So, giant squid. Where do we go from there?" He asked, turning back to Cassie. "They're capable for this?"

"On paper, it's the perfect morph for the job." Cassie nodded. "It's big, very fast and they live in constantly high pressure. If any animal can get us to the Pemalite ship, they can."

/But why is it only on paper?/ Tobias asked, not really sure he wanted to hear the answer.

"Because I wouldn't know how to get one." Cassie sighed, her shoulders sagging as the group lost all the elation we'd gained. "There's never been any in captivity. They've almost never been seen alive. They live so deep in the ocean that the only surface dwellers that see them with any kind of frequency is the sperm whale, its only predator."

/So we must acquire a sperm whale and track this creature./ Ax stated.

I just shook my head at that. "You can't keep many whales in captivity and definitely not whales the size of sperm whales. I don't think anything bigger than an orca is ever kept for long."

"And they're only taken in if they're really hurt or a baby that lost the parents." Jake nodded. "And most of that's still done in the sea if it's possible."

/So...we have a solution with no way to execute it./ Tobias, eliciting defeated sighs from everyone with a mouth.

"And eight hours until the Chee is found. We don't have a prayer." Marco grumbled, scowling at the ground.

That was pretty much all there was to it. No whale meant we couldn't even try to search for a giant squid and no giant squid meant that any attempt to save the Chee was simply suicide. We lose. The Yeerks would find the Chee and take them apart. They'd follow the signal causing this problem down to the ship. They'd abuse their technology and advance so far that even the Andalites would be screwed. We'd just failed in a way that would affect the entire galactic war horribly.

...

There was nothing we could do, so we parted ways. Marco and Jake headed off to Erek's to tell the Chee the bad news. Cassie went back to her barn and Tobias and Ax disappeared into the forest. I was tempted to go find David, but I didn't want to tell him about this yet. It was depressing enough going through it the first time. So instead, I walked home with Rachel.

"I thought you would have headed back over to the junkyard." She commented as we made it back to the concrete paths of town. "You know, pick up that rifle you were so keen to keep."

"And walk from one side of town to the other holding an illegal weapon?" I shot back with a small grin. "Nah, I'll get that at night, when no one will noticed an armed bird flying around."

"I guess that's a fair point." She said softly, not really into it. That worried me a...lot to be honest. I was expecting Rachel to be fuming. I expected a tirade about how she would like nothing more than to kick gravity's butt. I expected her to decide to rush out into the ocean as a dolphin and search the endless blue sea, as unlikely as she was to find anything. What I was getting was a troubled look and sombre words. That wasn't Rachel. Not the one I knew.

I tried starting up a conversation, struggling to find things to talk about and even more to find stuff she'd give any kind of lengthy response to, but I just kept getting the same response. Distracted, gloomy, simple answers that dwindled into nothing. I was sure I wasn't that bad at this! At least, not with people I knew fairly well, gotten closer to. And Rachel, she loved to retort and tease. I even tried making out that I had better fashion sense than her, just to get her going on about how I wouldn't know good styles if they were thrown at me, and I still got nothing! Something was really eating her away. That settled it, I was getting involved.

"Rachel, are you ok?" I asked. With Rachel, I might as well be blunt. She would be no matter what way I went about asking. Rachel doesn't have respect for the more subtle approaches. If I was going to get anywhere, and watching her, I knew I had to, I had to speak her language.

"Yeah, why? I'm fine." Her response wouldn't have convinced anyone of anything except the fact that she was lying. There was none of Rachel's life behind it, none the energy or excitement of irritation she always put into whatever she said. Just that same, gloomy tone.

"Something's bothering you." I stated, cutting right to the chase. "And don't tell me it's the Chee. Your utter lack of irritation at this failure is proof itself that something's bothering you and it's pretty big. At least to you. Come on, talk to me."

"It's really nothing." She shook her head, not even looking at me. "It's just me...playing the self pity game, making mountains out of molehills."

"Then it is something to you." I persisted stubbornly. I wasn't letting this go. It was her choice whether or not to tell me, but she wasn't even getting irritated at me as I hounded her. This was just not Rachel and it scared me. Something had happened, or built up and she was struggling with it, losing to it, so I wasn't going to drop it. "Rachel, you'll feel better if you get it off your chest and there is the chance that I might be able to help. Don't bottle it up. It'll only hurt you more later."

She didn't say anything to that, or visibly respond for a good long time. I was getting frustrated myself by the time we turned a corner and into her neighbourhood. I thought she was just going to snub me all the way back to her home and shut the door on me. However, as we came to the turnoff to her street, she kept walking.

Surprised, I watched her curiously as she kept going on until we reached a small park and sat down on a bench away from the gossiping mothers watching their kids on the play equipment. Sitting down next to her and a little unsure about what to do at that moment, I decided on keeping my mouth shut. I could see that she was thinking pretty hard about something and if I interrupted her, she might have decided not to talk to me. If she tried to get away from me, I could pursuit and nag her again anyway.

I didn't have to be patient for long, surprisingly enough. I was watching a toddler cheer for joy as she went down the slide as she spoke, her voice almost inaudible.

"I've been a bit scared lately." Tensing at that, I looked back to her just in time to see her face crumble. Everything that I never expected to see there was written all over her. Fear, doubt, confusion, insecurity, nervousness. It was so anti-Rachel. The girl could look death in the eye and spit in it, laugh in its face. She was the embodiment of confidence and bravery, with a kick butt, 'mess with me and I'll have you crying to mommy' attitude to match. This...this just blew me away!

But I couldn't let that show. Rachel couldn't know that she'd just unnerved me. So I took a long, slow breath and relaxed, turning my whole body to face her. "Scared of what?"

There was another moment of hesitation before she spoke again. Then it all just came spilling out. "Myself. I'm scared by how into the war I seem to be getting. Jake noticed it's getting bad too. He once said to me that it wouldn't be surprised if I was disappointed when the war finished and I can't fully refute him. I'm scared by the fact that lately I've been getting a little annoyed on missions when Jake shows up and takes charge. And...I scared by the fact that my normal life just doesn't seem to do it for me anymore."

"Aah! That problem." I nodded calmly as I processed everything she'd said. It was actually pretty funny really. Amongst her fears was every issue I'd suffered from since coming back, though either to a different extent or she handled it differently. Like me, she'd taken note of her dark side and wasn't too thrilled with what she saw. And we were currently dealing with the same issue on normalcy. "I'm having some trouble with that last one too."

"Already?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. "At your level of experience, I was still living my normal life just fine."

"Everyone reacts differently to every situation." I shrugged. "Everyone is unique, as are how they react to things. I think the point when it started for me was when I got my wings. My bike just...paled in comparison, you know?"

"That's similar to my problem." Rachel nodded, staring down at her hands. "Gymnastics was my thrill. The power and flexibility behind it all gave me such a rush! It was the closest I could get to flying and I loved it."

"But now you can fly and gymnastics seems mundane. Boring." I finished for her, my sympathetic smile turning a bit pained as she nodded. "All that time and effort put into it, all those dreams revolving around your sport that you craved to reach now seem so dull. Instead, you find yourself yearning for wings or the raw power of the super predators or to run as a wolf or horse. The animals we turn into simply outshine our old passions too much."

"Yeah." She sighed, rubbing her arms. There wasn't a great deal that either of us could do about that problem, we both knew it. The rush, the temporary freedom from gravity, the care you have to put into every quick move, it's what gymnastics and dirt bike racing have in common. She and I both enjoyed the rush and risk, the sensation of freedom it brought. And unfortunately, humans never have, or will, develop anything that could give us those sensations better than turning into animals. "So how do you deal with it?"

"I left David and turned into a horse because I couldn't even be bothered to walk to Cassie's." I snorted, laughing at myself. In retrospect, that was completely unnecessary and probably stupid. You don't exactly find wild horses around here. "I'm just basically creating a bigger hole for myself."

"So you don't know what I should do." She huffed in response. At least her irritation was returning, even if it was still far too clouded with sadness for my liking.

"Now, now, don't put words in my mouth." I chided, putting up a smile I usually gave Ben when I succeeded in making him pouty. "I do have an idea on how to help you with all your issues. Can't guarantee that it'll work, but it's the best shot I've got."

"Then what is it?" She demanded, almost jumping me in her haste to know.

"You need to take a step back." I said calmly, thoroughly confusing her. "All your current problems can be traced back to your involvement in the war. Of all of us, you jump into the most stuff. You plough through it, one thing after another. Your keenness to enter everything you can has allowed the war to change you more violently than most, allowed your dark side to take a more dominate role. You're irritated when Jake takes over because he wrangles you in and you want run wild through it all. And now normal life pales in comparison because of the adrenaline addiction."

"Your advice is to simply ignore missions? Not go on them?" She cried, flabbergasted and indignant, only just remembering to keep her voice down as her eyes danced over the park for anyone who might be eavesdropping. We were pretty far away from everyone though, with unobscured lines of vision, we were fine.

"I'm not saying that exactly." I shook my head, keeping my own voice calm. "I'm saying don't jump head first into them. If someone else can do it, let them. Say a three man mission shows up, let another three people do it. Let Jake or Marco or David take the lead in battle instead of bounding in first yourself. Let them play offense while you just handle defence. It'll ween your adrenaline cravings back a little and restrain the growth of your dark side.

"And at the same time, pulling that step back would give you more time for your normal life." I continued, growing more confident as I went on and Rachel grew more accepting of the idea. "Then you might find that there's something about gymnastics that's still unique and enjoyable. It'll also leave more room to find something else about the normal world that thrills you."

"Oh? And what have you found?" Rachel asked knowingly, raising an inquisitive eye at me. Suddenly, I felt like I was a bug under a microscope, having every inch of me analysed. And considering I was still only wearing spandex, that felt really uncomfortable at that moment. "You're speaking from experience. Not the gymnastics thing, you've made it clear that you're struggling with your bike, but you found something else that's normal and thrilling to you. So what is it?"

"Lexi. And Ben." I said quickly. Too quickly. My face was growing far too hot for my liking and my heart was kicking at my chest while I was kicking myself. I might as well have put a freaking billboard over my head with 'I'm hiding something embarrassing' written across it in big, bold neon. It only took a second for a smirk to grow over Rachel's face, that knowing one that said 'I know exactly what you're hiding and I'm going to make you say it'. It was relieving to see the old, confident, in your face Rachel back again, but come on, now?

"We both know I'm going to draw this out of you." She said sweetly, a tone that did not match the devious look she was giving me. "You have no poker face. The shy and socially awkward tend to wear their emotions on their sleeves for all to see and I know how to spot a crush. Now you can give me a name or I can go through the whole, very short, list of girls you actually pay any attention to and figure it out myself. Besides your sister, it only consists of like four or five and I bet I can cross Cassie and myself off the list right away.

"Oh, so I'm doing it, am I?" She grinned like the freaking Cheshire Cat when I stayed silent, staring intently at my bare feet. This was not good.

"Ok, so let's see." The grin stayed right in place as she held up three fingers, contemplating all the possibilities. Seriously? She was depressed a minute ago. Is my lacking love life really that amusing? "First there's Beth. She and Ben hang out in the library a little lately. But you two don't seem very fond of each other, so I'll say no to that one." She decided, dropping one finger. How'd she know all that anyway? It's so rare that Beth and I even cross paths and that's only when the words library and Ben are involved. I didn't know Rachel even knew where the school library was! "Then there's Marian. You say a few words to her here and there, trying to get her attention. But that's for Ben, isn't it?" That smile was really creeping me out. Couldn't we go back to me analysing her?

"Have you been spying on me or something?" I demanded, trying to shift the conversation away. If I managed it now...

"No, but the only people you know how to handle and be relaxed with are Ben and Animorphs. Your conversations with everyone else are awkward and tend to stand out." At least the smile had turned into Rachel's usual smirk now. That was slightly easier to handle. Though, I'd never had it focused on me before, so I was still uncomfortable and squirmy as hell. And then she went to the last place I wanted her to go. "And that leaves...Melissa." I didn't say anything to that, but Rachel didn't need me too. My face actually got redder. Knowing that I was caught, I just turned away, refused to look at her face. "You like Melissa." She stated. Her voice came out neutral, simply stating a fact, scaring me even more than if she'd yelled.

Melissa was one of Rachel's best friends, the one right after Cassie. She was also the friend that had deteriorated because of the Yeerks screwing up her family and it really didn't help when her duty as an Animorph drew Rachel distant from her too. My friendship with Ben working out well had encouraged Rachel to work on their weakened friendship and that was really was great. However, Rachel had grown very protective of Melissa and that's why out of everyone on the planet, Rachel was the one I didn't want knowing that I liked her. For more than one reason.

The most obvious was that I was an Animorph. I frequently go into life threatening situations that I may not return from. With her parents showing her about as much care and affection as a brick wall, Melissa wouldn't be able to handle dating someone like me, caring and being cared for by someone who may simply cease to exist the next day. Or look like they don't when they have to run off suddenly or miss a date. Without telling her the truth, it would be very painful for both of us, but especially her. It could reopen all her old wounds and make her worse than she'd been before.

Then there was the fact that I'd ruined her father and the backlash that had on her. The stress of it all and the taunting at school, seeing as he'd also been our Vice Principal which resulted in her being a teacher's pet in her desperate hope of getting his approval, had hurt her. I'd hurt her. Rachel had too at the beginning of our involvement in the war by drift away, but they had history and she'd done it partly for Melissa's own good. I hadn't even thought about Melissa until I saw the result.

"Having a crush definitely helps making your normal life exciting." I tried smiling, but it just came out as a nervous grin as I finally forced myself to look at her emotionless face. "The fight or flight thing kicks off just as if I was facing a Taxxon as myself. My heart goes crazy and breathing's tricky when I'm close to her. Then there's all those fantasies of being with her, doing cheesy things like...I don't know, a picnic or something." That treacherous blush crept down my neck and over my ears at that one. I knew it was cliché and cheesy as all hell and usually it's not the guy thinking of stuff like that unless making out was involved, but I had no dating history, no real idea what to do and just sitting there, holding her while we joked and laughed was an image that I liked. "It just...it comes with feelings that no morph or mission could ever hope to replicate, let alone enhance. Like just hanging out with Ben or cheering Lexi on at netball or her at her dance performances. I don't want to let go of those feelings. And Melissa is nice, kind, smart and strong too, to have gotten this far, to go through all she has and still manage to start smiling again, even if they are small, it's really impressive. I can't think of anyone better to be with. So is this the part where you tell me to stay away from her?" I asked, turning my head away again as my voice turned bitter. Rachel still hadn't shown the slightest bit of emotion. She wasn't happy, she was gonna explode at me any moment, she...

"No. Though I recommend you think very hard about every possibility and what you're committing to before you ever make a move. That is, assuming you ever make one." Shocked wide eyed, I ripped my gaze right back to her, my jaw dropping. I was absolutely dumbfounded. The words had come out so casual, so light hearted, only carrying a friendly warning to them, nothing threatening whatsoever. She was even giving me a small, teasing smile. "How could I ever stand in the way of true love?" She teased, laughing as my dulling blush regained its strength. "You're a good guy Warren. If it weren't for the Animorph part, you'd be perfect for her, in my opinion anyway. You could help her through her problems and make her happy. If you choose to go for it, I won't stop you. Just make sure that she won't get hurt in the process first. Make sure you know that you are not allowed to run off on her or die." She added with a motherly lecture, waving her finger in my face and everything.

"Deal." I smiled gratefully as we fell into a companionable silence. It felt good for that moment. No worries about the Yeerks and everything involved, no disasters rearing their ugly heads, just two friends who'd never spent any time together without a third party relaxing and enjoying each other's company. "I'll make you another deal too." I said casually, drawing her interest back. "You work on enjoying a 'normal' life and I'll do the same. Help each other have fun with normalcy while we're at it."

"I can accept that." Rachel nodded before her face turned thoughtful. "Actually, since we're talking crushes and normalcy anyway, maybe you can help me out with something else."

"Oh? What is it?" That peaked my curiosity. I struggled to get everything out of her and now she was opening up completely on her own.

"A boy asked me out at gymnastics this morning." She started, biting her lower lip. Strange, she didn't usually get nervous about such things.

"Oh yeah? How'd you break the guy's ego this time?" I smiled, keeping it light. No sense picking at it, it was best to keep the air casual. She smiled in response, just what I was hoping for. Something was tricky about this one, it was best to keep her as far into her comfort zone as I could.

"I only said not a chance." She shook her head, before adding hesitantly. "But my mouth moved before my brain gave it orders. I wanted to say yes."

"So why didn't you?" That was interesting. What had stopped her? Well, actually that wasn't too hard to figure out, something I was reminded of as a pigeon flew over my head. The better question was what made her want to say yes.

"You know that I sort of have something with Tobias. Everyone does." She stated a little moodily. "I am a lot of things, some of them far from good, but I am not disloyal. But it's just...Tobias is...and T.T. is..."

"One's dominantly a bird and the other is permanently human?" I tried, getting a sigh and a nod in return. That part was easy to figure out. Dating a bird's unheard of and not really possible. Morphing doesn't really help either, there's a two hour limit. A proper teenage date usually lasts three or four, from the little I know. A fully human boy would definitely be enticing to Rachel's position. "So what made you want to say yes? You usually don't even consider the flirts worth your time. What's special about this guy?"

"I'm not sure." Was her response, shaking her head. "He's tall. And cute. And human. As cocky and confident as I usually am. If I went out with him and saw a movie, we could stop for burgers afterward instead of growing feathers and looking for road kill. It could fun, it could be..."

"Normal?" I offered. I saw where this was going. "He's a normal guy with normal expectations and not someone you have to worry about getting eaten by a raccoon every night. Someone you can walk openly with and lean on instead of always being the supporting figure." Everything Tobias couldn't be with feathers and a beak.

"Yeah, that basically sums it up." I really felt bad for her. Even from the start, you could see something between her and Tobias. But his form always got in the way. Tobias makes it even worse than it has to be. The whole time I've been back, I've only seen his human face a small handful of times. He chooses to stay as a hawk, only morphing human when he has to and usually complains about the eyes and lack of wings the whole time. And even if Rachel had a female red tailed hawk morph, birds don't date. What could they do, take a flight around his meadow? We all do that nearly every day, how that would be considered a date?

In Rachel's movie and burgers scenario, Tobias could just demorph and morph again in some unseen location after the movie, but he wouldn't even do that. Four hours stuck on the ground with 'poor human vision' was too much for him. Don't get me wrong, I'm not looking down at Tobias or upset with him or anything. I'm not trying to blame him or say this is all his fault, because he has his own issues he hasn't worked out. There are reasons he chose to stay a hawk at every opportunity of freedom from it presented to him. It's just, at Rachel's standpoint, it's the cause of all the strife and it just isn't mentally healthy for her to have to deal with this.

"You know...Tobias is probably gonna give me the silent treatment for this, but...I think that maybe you should say yes." There, I bit the bullet.

"Say what?" Rachel was completely thrown off by that and I didn't blame her. It was a bit shocking for her, especially since I knew exactly why she said no in the first place. To her, and most people, it was a solid argument.

"Rachel, you and Tobias have never actually gotten together, so you're not being disloyal." I started calmly, but firmly. I had to press this. "You are free to date other people. And I'm not saying become this guy's girlfriend. I'm saying that maybe you should try going on one lousy date with him."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because you need to see if that's what you want." Was my response. She was getting a little excitable, but I was staying calm. Rachel was good practice for me. No matter how sessions go, a psychologist has to stay calm, cool and collected. And it was the best way to make others see your point. With no emotion or word play behind it, suggestions and advice were more likely to be accepted as they're intended, not confused for another meaning or seeming like an emotional call. It emphasises that it's all planned out and thought over carefully. Something Rachel needed to know now. "Rachel, you're struggling because you want a normal relationship and Tobias can't give you that. This T.T. guy can. You need to experience a normal relationship, to see if that's truly what you want and need. Tobias may be what you want, but if he can't give you what you need, then you'll never be truly happy with him. You'll only hurt each other in the long run. That's why I suggesting taking a normal date with a normal guy. To see if that is what you need. If it makes you happy. If you just choose Tobias, that's your choice and I'll accept it, but you'll always look over your shoulder wondering how different and better it could be if you had an ordinary relationship. If you go on the normal date and don't like it, then that's ok too. You'll know what it's like and stop wondering. And either way, you'd end one of Tobias' issues. Self-directed anger for selfishly putting you through this. His words, not mine." I added quickly as she got indignant.

"He told you that?"

"No, I did my thing. It's not hard to figure out when you know what to look for, even without facial expressions." I shrugged, sinking back into the bench. This was taxing. I needed a nap. "Look, get his permission if that's what you need, but I do think you should try it. It may work out or may not, but at least you'll know what you want and need."

"I guess...a movie or something wouldn't hurt." She finally conceded, her own form sinking down onto the wood in defeat. "I don't even have to consider it a date anyway. It can just be two people hanging out."

"Very true." I nodded. "So, what does T.T. stand for anyway?" I was done with the serious stuff.

"I don't know." Rachel seemed over it too, shrugging as she pondered my question. "I'll have to ask when he tries asking me out again."

"Oh, you're so sure he will?" I grinned, turning to her with tired amusement. "You must have been unusually lenient with that rejection."

"Oh, he'd try again even if I told him to get lost." There's that spark and bravado I'm so used to seeing. "Guys like him have one of two responses to rejection from a Goddess like me; assume I'm really into them and just playing hard to get or take it as an insult to their ego and work ridiculously hard to impress me just to remove that horrible little stain that says they're not the perfect studs they deceive themselves into thinking they are."

"Oh jeez." We both fell into laughter at that, quickly falling into a banter about which gender was more ridiculous when it came to attracting a partner.

"So..." Rachel started as we calmed down from another bout of laughter, scaring me as her lips grew into a vicious smirk. "I seem to remember your rag clad butt telling me that you had better fashion sense than I do."

Oh crap! Someone save me, I'm doomed.

* * *

**AN:** I always felt that someone should have had this kind of conversation with Rachel. The others noticed what was happening to her at one point or another, but none of them really tried to do anything about it. I always both admired and felt really bad for Rachel, how she always sacrificed her own well being for the others and it annoyed me that they just sort of got wary and irritated with the result instead of trying to help her.

Thanks again for the reviews. I'm glad that people like where I'm going with Ben. I really like how I've got both him and Warren developing right now and it really is rewarding to know others approve. Well, see ya next week


	5. The Exposure Part 5: Ben

**The Exposure Part 5**

**Ben**

Hunter's story would have made an amazing sci-fi movie. A couple months back, I never would have believed that any of this was even possible and would have been the first to start dialling up the psychiatric hospital, but after all I'd seen and heard, it made perfect sense to me.

"You only continue to amuse me blondy." Hunter commented as I stumbled over a tree root, a small smirk crossing his face. "And make me more and more suspicious. A normal person would be arguing with everything I've said, even after seeing a Hork-Bajir, going on about the idiocy of my 'story' or how impossible it was. You just accept everything I say with a nod and a 'carry on'."

"Well, I never claimed to be normal." I shrugged before fumbling again, getting a mixed look of amusement and irritation from Hunter. I was slowing him down a lot even without my humiliating fumbling and it was bugging him, but he was tolerant. Honestly, I think he liked the company, though he wouldn't admit it. "And it connects a lot of random dots I'd found while eavesdropping." I added, trying to draw his attention away from the embarrassed flush on my face while at the same time, watching out for any more trip hazards. "Like when the kidnappers today claimed that the enemy wouldn't give in to them and that they'd have to go through with whatever they do to their hostage and yet still talking and acting like they wanted the guy free. They were talking about keeping him captive for three days, until the Yeerk in his head dies, right?"

"And commenting on how it wouldn't leave the host early from the sounds of it." Hunter nodded, seeming to take pity on me before focusing on everything around us again. "I wasn't aware the Andalites were kidnapping and starving Yeerks. Maybe they or the Yeerks were keeping it on the low down. Or maybe they've only just started." He muttered to himself. A frown had grown on his face as his voice turned thoughtful. He seemed a little wary, like he was unsure what to make of the piece of information I could provide him with. Maybe even a bit of...anger and jealousy? I wasn't sure what to make of it either, so I pressed on. What I gave him wasn't urgent, there was plenty of time to figure out how he felt about it.

"Andalites?" I asked, frowning curiously at the word. "What does Andalites mean? Is it some team name for the Shapeshifters or something?"

"More like their race's name. They are not human." Hunter grumbled, confusing me a bit. He didn't say it with the same level of venom that he used to talk about the Yeerks, but there was still a decent amount of dislike involved. Come to think of it, the Hork-Bajir were the only aliens he'd spoken of with even mere neutrality. "Andalites are a race similar in appearance to blue centaurs. They are technology advanced. So much so that they actually created the ability to morph into any animal they've touched."

"The shapeshifters are aliens?" I gasped. I found it a little hard to breathe at that moment. If that was true, then Warren wasn't human. An alien would have had to replace the real Warren. I had no clue what to make of this, I mean, Warren...

"What did you think they would be?" Hunter asked, looking almost as thrown off by my reaction as I was. "What else would have shapeshifting powers? Humans haven't exactly developed that kind of mutation yet."

"I knew something really out of this world would be involved, but I just assumed that they were human." I answered, taking a few deep breaths. "I mean, every time I saw one of them change shape, a human form was involved and I've never seen anything alien, the closest I saw to blue fur was golden feathers growing on a boy's arm and-"

"Wait, feathers growing from a _human_ arm?" Hunter cried, coming to an immediate halt, his eyes growing wide in shock as he stared at me.

"Yeah. Why?" I asked, feeling myself calm down as shock turned into confusion. Why was that little detail so shocking to him.

"When Andalite morphing power is used, the Andalite has to return to their true form before they can turn into a different animal. Visser Three complained about that all the time." He answered, though he seemed to be talking more to himself than me. It gave me time to wonder who Visser Three was before I had his undivided attention again. "If you saw bird feathers growing on a human body, that means you must have seen David."

"David?" I asked, a little intrigued. "Blond hair, cocky attitude? How do you know I saw him specifically?" I added as he nodded.

"Because David found the source of the morphing power. A blue cube." Was Hunter's answer as he started moving again, powering through the small bushes. It was a struggle just to keep up. "The Yeerks and Andalite Bandits had a huge battle in his house over it. The Andalites succeeded in taking him and the device away and then, for reasons I haven't the slightest clue about, broke their law about not sharing their technology and gave him the morphing power. Though, many Yeerks always thought that it was more likely that he blundered into activating the device and they kept him around to stop the Yeerks from gaining another morph capable host. Either way, he is the only human to have the power."

"I see." I bit my tongue at that. I knew he was wrong. Warren was human after all, not an alien imposter. That meant that there were at least two humans with morphing power and considering that I was sure Cassie was in on this too, I was willing to bet that there were more. Still, with everything Hunter had told me, it was best that I didn't tell him that. He was being hunted by the Yeerks already. If they got him, they'd already know about me, I couldn't let them get that kind of information too. Their identities had to remain undiscovered or Warren was doomed.

"You have a very deep pondering look there." Hunter commented, pulling my attention back to him as he walked around a particularly large tree and calmly looked me over, focusing particularly on my face and my the outstretched hand bearing the Dracon Beam. He was scrutinising every part of me, similarly to how Warren did when he was trying to interpret my mood and gestures. He was looking for something and with the way his eyes hardened a little every time they focused on the Dracon Beam, I'd say he was expecting something violent.

His tone and the way he looked at me almost demanded an explanation, but there was no way I was going to tell him the true answer. It was easy to cover though, there was still one more question that had been going through my mind since the beginning of all this.

"I was just thinking about what your story could be. And trying to figure out why you trust me." I added with a small smirk. "After all, from what you've told me, however you discovered it all, I could be a Controller trying to find your little merry band. Yet here you are, caring for me, talking to me and letting me hold the Dracon Beam, which I could turn on you much faster than you could turn that bulky bow on me. That's a lot of risks."

"All true." Hunter nodded, growing a smirk of his own. "Though I'm less doubtful considering you did offer up the Dracon Beam and even if I'm wrong, on the weapons front, your klutziness would make it easy to take you down. But yes, I am taking precautions along that front. You're staying by my side until all this is over and we can have you checked for a Yeerk. If there isn't one in your head, you'll be fine and if there is...well, it won't be there in three days time." The dark look in his eyes as he made that promise sent shivers down my spine. I was suddenly three times as glad that I was Yeerk free, that look promised pain and suffering to all parasites.

"As for my story..." He went on, his face growing no less darker and a lot more troubled. It was clear in a instant that he was stewing over some really bad memories. "I lived one town over from here and joined The Sharing with every other kid in my neighbourhood. It's a Yeerk front, a way to gather willing hosts. Only with me, they didn't wait until I was willing.

"My dad is the town's chief of police and they wanted him. My sister was one of, if not the most popular girl at the high school and was a member of a lot of clubs, making her a good target to drive other teenagers to the Yeerks too, so they took me quickly and used me to get to my family. My Yeerk was given a canister-like device used to safely and subtly transport Yeerks and then...when they were all asleep, my Yeerk made me...I infested all of them, my parents and my sister."

He had to stop there. He was barely holding back tears and gulped audibly again and again. I felt horrible for him and horrible for bringing this up. I couldn't think of a single thing to say. Nothing I said would make him feel any better and an 'I'm sorry' just sounded pathetic. So, I kept quiet and placed what I hoped was a comforting hand on his shoulder as he tried to rein himself in. He tensed for the first few seconds of contact, enough so that I almost pulled away, thinking that I'd done something wrong, but he relaxed a moment later, even leaning into my hand like I always unconsciously did when my dad or Warren did it for me.

He took a good few more moments, but after what he'd just told me, I'd have happily have waited all day and night for the rest of the story. To have your free will, your body, your mind, everything that is you ripped from your control was horrific enough, but to have to watch on helplessly as the Yeerk controlling your body used you to trick and infest the people you cared about most. I couldn't ever even begin to imagine how horrible that would feel.

"With...with that job done, I just became another low ranking Controller." He said as he finally calmed himself, giving me a small, appreciative look before pulling away from me. "I had no mission except to keep up appearances and look out for new victims and possible Andalite Bandits that might come to town. Then, about two months ago, while I was in a cage, waiting for my Yeerk to finish its feeding time in the Yeerk Pool, there was a malfunction. I think it was some kind of power surge. Things started sparking, the Controllers started panicking and in the chaos, two people who were in the process of being dragged into the cages when it all started managed to slip out of the Hork-Bajir's grip, grabbed a few Dracon Beams from nearby Controllers' pockets, and blew the cage doors. Every prisoner ran, trying to escape. Most of us were caught, but seventeen of us escaped.

"Knowing that the Yeerks would never let us go, we stayed together and fled into the woods where we've been hiding ever since. The Yeerks have pursued us ever since, but before today, we'd done a pretty good job of avoiding them or taking them out. Between us, we had a couple of people with wilderness survival skills and one of us managed to grab a chunk of Yeerk tech on the way out. She was the host of one of their tech heads and was infested for a while, so she knows how to use it. Adding all that to a few stolen Dracon Beams, we took care of ourselves pretty well for a while."

"And then they found you today." I finished for him, keeping him focused on the now. As bad as it was, it beat mulling over the betrayal he was forced to make against his family.

"I don't think they were even looking for us to be honest." Hunter chuckled humourlessly, readjusting his grip on his bowstring. "If they were, Taxxons would have been around, sniffing us out, and the Hork-Bajir probably would have had Dracon Beams. Probably would have had my dad and his men here too, in case we got too close to the town and appearances had to be held. These Horks were probably just out to feed and found a random group of humans in the area."

"Let's hope. It's a little more likely that you'll all get away if they don't know it's you guys they found." I pointed out. Hunter only nodded in response, his brooding look squarely placed across his face once more.

We fell into silence from then on. He'd told me all that he knew, answered every question I had. Well, every question that he had an answer for. I only had a few left now, but I'd have to wait until I faced Warren with all this before I'd get those answers. After all, who else could tell me just how many Andalites there were on Earth and just how many of the 'Andalite Bandits' were actually human? Or how and why they were given the power?

Hunter let his eyes flicker my way once in a while, a slight, curious frown appearing with every look. It didn't take much to figure it out though. He was curious as to why I wasn't just walking away. I think he was confident that I wasn't a Controller and if I gave him the Dracon Beam, he'd have let me walk away before I got into danger. Before it became dangerous to him and his friends if I was a Controller. Most people would. Not long ago, I would have left. But this was the sort of thing that Warren was involved in and I knew how I wanted to help him now. The Yeerks affect us all, the only way I could truly help him was to help resist them. Trying to pull him away from this would only hurt us all in the long run. He couldn't just sit on the sidelines and I decided that I couldn't either. Even if I was more terrified than I had ever been before facing down a Hork-Bajir.

Besides, I owed Hunter for saving my life. And on top of that...I think I actually managed to make a new friend.

"I willing to try speeding up." I offered, grinning as I not only passed him, but managed to successfully dodge two branches and four trip hazards without fail. "After all, the sooner we can be sure your friends are safe the better."

"Heh, right." Hunter nodded, smirking back at me as his pace doubled. Bumping my shoulder in what I had a feeling was an act of thanks, he pressed on, quickly taking the lead again. A rattlesnake made itself known as we went on from bushes through to a small path. It was rattling its tail like crazy. I remembered reading that that was its way of warning potential threats that it was there and to go away before it bites. This morning, if I'd heard that up close, I would have screamed and ran with my tail between my legs. Now however, I just gave it a look and stepped closer to Hunter, giving it some space. Snakes suddenly seemed like nothing. I was aiming for a threat that made them look about as threatening as an earthworm. Why would I let a snake bother me?

...

It took well over an hour to find even a single sign of humans or aliens, but when we did, reaching the party took no effort at all. Screams of men and Hork-Bajir alike echoed throughout the woods, frequently accompanied by the thumps of heavy feet, the snapping of breaking branches and the tearing of bark and wood.

Hunter grew more and more pained and panicked with every scream he heard, however, he still forced his shoulder in front of me, stopping me from running right into it laser blazing and slowing our pace. Keeping an arrow aimed right in front of him and ready to fire at a second's notice, he slowly and cautiously led me into weaving through the trees, pressing our backs and sides against each trunk we passed.

"We have to know what we're up against." He whispered so softly that I could barely hear him, even with his mouth practically touching my ear. "We need to watch the trees for more Horks and we have to stay unseen until we choose to attack. If there are too many..."

"We'll pull back." I finished for him as he bit his lip and nodded, glaring in a bit of self-hatred. It was sad, but true. I knew war history well, so I knew exactly what he didn't want to say out loud. If they're in a no win scenario, then we had to pull out and abandon his friends. Trying to help would only get us captured or killed and neither result would help anyone. In fact, it would only make things worse for our side.

Much worse if they learned what I'd learned about their enemies.

Creeping slower and slower, Hunter watching straight ahead and to the sides while I eyed the trees for any sign of movement until Hunter came to a dead halt. Watching a rustling tree, I didn't notice and walked right into his back before shouldered me back, roughly guiding me into to some bushes. Crouching, he didn't quite stop the low growl from rolling around his closed mouth as he let his arms relax before his whole body tensed a second later as a piercing scream hit our ears.

"MARY!" A greying haired man screeched, his head whipping to a downed, heavily bleeding young woman. In doing so, he dropped his guard, merely firing a Dracon Beam randomly in the direction of about five Hork-Bajir. Unfortunately, he failed to hit even one and was hit, losing his weapon. "AAAARRRGGGGHHHHHH!" And...his hand. Before he'd even finished screaming, another blade had struck deeply into his chest. He was dead before he even hit the ground, joining the corpses of two other humans and what I think accumulated to nine Hork-Bajir. Within moments, the Mary girl would stop breathing too, I was sure of it. With that slash to her back, I doubted her spine was in one piece.

"Mary, Bruce, Aiden and Alice." Hunter forced back a sob as tears fell down his cheeks. His body was shaking as grief flooded him. Enough so to freak me out.

I'd felt like I was going to be sick before, but that was completely overwhelmed as Hunter broke down. Wrapping my arm around his shoulders, I pulled him close to me and as still as I could, my other hand moving gently, but firmly to his mouth, trying to muffle his sobs. He was trying on his own, but too much noise was escaping him and his shaking had started to disturb the bushes around us. If I couldn't neutralise it, we'd be caught and dead too. Hunter couldn't be expected to suck it up, the pictured burned into both of our eyelids was nothing short of horrific, traumatising, and the humans had been people that Hunter had spent all of his time from for a good while, people he really cared about. So that meant that our survival was now completely up to me.

_Still, not exactly the easiest task I could be given._ The thought was an understatement. There were still a total of ten Hork-Bajir moving around the battlefield. Half of them were wounded, yes, but they could still fight and they were now armed with more than just their blades. The humans each seemed to have had a Dracon Beam, there were four lying on the ground. Two were destroyed, the Hork-Bajir probably only taking them to hide their existence, but the other two were completely functional. Six armed people might have been able to win, but as we were now, Hunter and I would be annihilated if they found us.

"Gaahh! Only four!" Tensing, I tightened my grip on Hunter, more for my own comfort than anything else, as one of the Controllers barked. "Saw seven! Dracon mean free rebels! Find other three!"

Six Hork-Bajir were quick to respond, immediately taking to the trees and fanning out, while the others turned back to the bodies on the ground. Covering their tracks.

Through it all, I didn't even let myself breathe. Hunter was doing plenty of that for both of us, though now I could hear a touch of anger to it. I thanked whoever was listening that that was all he did. Sparing a look at his tear stained face, the snarl I saw spoke of a deep desire to rip the Controllers to shreds. If he'd given into that...

I gave up on watching and sealed my eyes tightly shut as heavy thumps rumbled above and around us, 'please don't find us' running through my head over and over again. It wasn't until a good minute after it faded away, leaving only the rough voices and noises of the four cleaning the area, that I finally let myself relax and breathed in more air at once than I ever had before.

"Hunter, come on." I whispered, gently nudging him. "We have to go." However, he ignored me. His teeth drawing blood from his lip, barely releasing the sound that would end us, he glared animalistically down at the four Hork-Bajir remaining. His hand was tightening over his bow while the other was fumbling to notch his arrow. I almost freaked again.

"Hunter!" I snapped, jerking him as roughly as I could without making life ending rustles and almost fumbling back with a stuttered apology as he turned his fierce, heated glare on me. Almost. My self-preservation was more worried about the Hork-Bajir than him. "Don't be reckless."

"There's only four of them still down there!" He snarled defiantly, jerking his body in their direction. "One arrow and Dracon fire before they even know that we're here would have it down to two and we could easily kill the last ones before they reach us. They're injured, unarmed and loaded with...weight." He added, flinching a little as the obviously missing 'dead' refused to leave his mouth. It was a bad choice of words on his part.

"Yes, they'll be killed," _Assuming that my aim doesn't suck. _I added silently before pressing on as firmly and quietly as I could. "But then what happens next?"

"We track down the other Controllers-"

"If so much as one gets away, the Yeerks will know exactly where you are and make escape impossible." I interrupted, talking as heatedly as he was. My knowledge of old wars was kicking into place. "They probably already sent a guy back to report the breach in security. If they're killed now, it'll alert the next troop that some of the seven are still alive immediately and have them scrambling. We need to pull back and find a way to trick them into believing that they got everyone in the area."

Glaring the whole time I was talking, I was worried that he was going to ignore me completely. His body was still poised to strike too, like he was going to do it whether I help or not. But then, finally, after almost a whole other minute, though his hate-filled glare never left the Hork-Bajir that he'd turned back to during my speech, he relaxed his body and nodded.

"We will have to move and plan fast if we wish to trick them." He stated, not even looking at me as we slowly moved away, our weapons once again poised to strike if we were found. "It said it saw seven and that there were three more still out there. Assuming none of the others were caught already, there are still another twelve people that their search team might find and possibly another thirteen Horks in the area, though with the way the four...down there fight, I bet most of them are already gone."

I just nodded as we went on our way, letting my eyes focus more on the Dracon Beam than where we were going. If we found the right kind of place, this could be used to fake a few deaths, that wasn't a problem. We just had to find his friends first.

...

Over rock ledges and swinging through a tree branches, we pressed on. We were silent this time. Hunter's mood left him in a state where he'd simply snap at anything I said or break down and cry if we spoke. It was better that we were silent anyway. My clumsy feet made all the noise needed to risk ending us as it was.

We'd already found a couple of stray Hork-Bajir that had tried to take us out along the way. after my Dracon Beam was done, I almost cried in sympathy of the apparently gentle hosts. There wasn't a speck of them left to identify that they'd even been there.

The area was starting to grow a little more rocky and uneven now, but despite how that really didn't help my balance or the already painful strain of my legs, I was glad. The rises and falls made plenty of places for us to hide when we had to and there was even the possibility of finding a small cave. It would make faking a few deaths a lot easier later and made escaping detection a lot easier now.

It was also a great place for Hunter's group to have possibly hidden themselves away in.

"GARsh!" Tensing as the weak scream hit my ears, I whipped my head to the left and felt a bit of hope at the sight. The cry, definitely alien, had sounded pained and the trees in the area showed rough handling from more than one alien. Add that to the human boot footprint in the mud and what looked like a broken spear lying on the ground and it looked like we may have just found who we were looking for alive. "GRAAF!"

"Quick, hand me another!"

We didn't even look at each other, we just sprinted. That voice was human and though it sounded gruff, it was stained with desperation. He and someone else were having a lot of trouble and we weren't about to let another freed host lose their life.

Stumbling on the rocks and barely managing to duck a branch Hunter swung out of his way, I fell a little behind, but I more than made up for it. Slipping and falling to the ground, I crawled through a small gap in the shrubbery and found myself in the perfect position to see three Hork-Bajir and four people. One human was bleeding from a nasty wound on his leg and one Hork-Bajir was down, riddled with spears while everyone else was covered in small injuries, but I was still more than happy to see that everyone in the area was still very much alive.

The injured man was stumbling to tie a sharp rock to a long stick as quickly as he could, while another battered man stood protectively over him, handing the injured guy's crudely made weapons to the others. The third man and a woman, both looking to be in their late twenties, were ducking and running all around the area, trying to keep the Hork-Bajir off balance as they launched their spears. It was an impressive effort, but one that was ultimately futile. They didn't have time to fix the branches and rocks, leaving the resulting spears wonky and less than sufficiently sharpened. Add that to the fact that they were tiring and the Hork-Bajir had much tougher skin than the average animal, they weren't doing the damage they'd done to the downed guy. They weren't much more than an irritation anymore.

Not that it mattered anymore. By the time Hunter had gotten into a decent stance, I was aiming the Dracon Beam and we fired simultaneously. The arrow aimed for one alien's shoulder while the laser beam struck the other in the leg.

"AAARRHHH!" Both aliens cried out as the projectiles met and sunk into their flesh, but my target's cry completely drowned out the other's as it fell to the ground, the lower half of its leg incinerated. Knowing that it wouldn't survive no matter what now, the Yeerks having no need for a disabled shock trooper, I aimed carefully and fired on it again, leaving nothing but a scorch mark behind.

Meanwhile, Hunter had jumped right into it. Literally. Diving down the small, three foot incline we were targeting from, he pulled himself into a roll and stopped on his knees right in front of his target. Having been pulling out another arrow along the way, within a second he'd aimed his bow and launched his arrow right up and through the Hork-Bajir's long, serpentine throat.

"Gah! Ga..ga..gack." Spluttered and chocking, alive with pain and panic as its breathing became almost impossible, it brought both hands to the arrow and ripped it out only to do even more damage to its neck. Blood poured down its body and more glugging, gurgling chokes left its mouth as it stared down at a ferally smirking Hunter with a mixed look of rage, hatred and so much fear and agony. It knew it was going to die and couldn't do anything about it.

That is, except try to take Hunter with him. With its hands clasped around the neck, it threw up its leg, aiming its leg mounted blade for the now wide eyed Hunter's throat. It happened so fast that I didn't even have time to get over the shock of it all until it was too late.

Fortunately, the woman reacted faster than me. Right before the blade would have ended his life, she dived into him and sent them both sprawling, just out of reach. Struggling and failing to get in anymore air, the alien tried one more attempt at their lives by spinning its body so its tail blade came at them as it fell, but both of them caught it a mile away and rolled a good, safe distance away. The poor thing let out one more sigh as it hit the ground before its entire body slackened. It was gone.

"Hunter!" The woman cried, relief washing over her the instant the imminent threat was over. Pulling herself up, she immediately grabbed his arms and held him close. "Oh, thank God. We had no idea what happened to you. You're safe."

"One less person we have to worry about." The other fighter said with an uncaring air, though his smile spoke of more than a little happiness.

"Right back at ya." Hunter retorted softly, staring at all four of them gratefully, growing a little worried as the others stumbled over their way. That one guy really was hurt.

All in all, it was like watching a war torn family being joyously reunited. It felt pretty good to watch and know that I participated in making it happen. I felt...

"Hey, how did you obliterate the first one anyway?" The protective guy asked, frowning as he looked Hunter over. "That was Dracon fire and there's no Dracon Beams on you."

"Yeah. And you shot an arrow at the same time." The fighter guy added slowly, his face growing dark as he looked my way.

I never noticed when they spotted me and cried out though. I was too busy being struck cold registering what I'd just done. I'd just ripped a slave and its master apart and burned them into cinders. Again! The images of both my victims today played over in my mind again, both their screams echoing through my head like a broken record.

I didn't even catch Hunter's panicked shouting as the protective guy went self-defensive and threw a spear at me. In fact, the only thing that saved my life from it was the fact that the scenes of bloody and gory deaths had me dropping to my hands and knees and puking.

I felt sick to my stomach, no pun intended, and ended up so focused on actually crying and puking that I never even noticed the spear fly narrowly over my head.

* * *

**AN:** Just taking the time to answer _Alex Cloninger's_ question. Warren and Ben's confrontation won't happen for a bit yet. I've already planned out exactly when that will happen and why and though my own impatience is trying to push it forward, for the story's sake and to not defy the nature of one or two characters, I'm staying firm. On your other note, if you want a _brief_ glimpse, I think I can organise that when we reach the whale.


End file.
